Boerderij in een winterlandschap 1931

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this etching, *Boerderij in een winterlandschap* – or *Farmhouse in a Winter Landscape* – with, I imagine, a fairly dry needle. The marks are linear, with a lot of hatching and cross-hatching to build up the tones. Look at the way he’s described the sky, dragging the needle lightly and repeatedly across the plate. This area is printed quite softly, in contrast to the foreground which is dark and sharp. The scratches on the boat are particularly vivid. You can almost feel the scratch of the metal tool on the plate, and the resistance that would have been involved in its creation. The whole piece has an intimate, handcrafted quality. For me, it’s reminiscent of the drawings of Paula Modersohn-Becker, particularly in the simplified depiction of the natural forms. There is a similar concern with distilling a scene down to its essential elements, capturing a feeling of lived experience through direct, unpretentious mark-making. Art is a language spoken between artists across time, a continuous conversation.