Landschap 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this landscape with graphite on paper, and you can feel the artist working through something. The marks aren't precious, they're about finding a form. Look at the left side: that cluster of lines, scribbles, and angles. It's a bush, maybe, or some other kind of foliage, but it’s really more of an idea of a bush. It's not about rendering reality, but about the act of perception. You can almost see the artist's hand moving, trying to capture the essence of the thing. It reminds me of Guston's late work, where everything is raw and exposed. De Jonge isn’t afraid to leave things unresolved. The emptiness on the right is just as important as the marks on the left. It creates a sense of space, of possibility, of something yet to be discovered. It’s a reminder that art is a process, not a product, and that sometimes the most interesting things happen in the spaces between the lines.