Landschap met bomen bij avond 1873 - 1933

This etching by Hermannus Adrianus van Oosterzee is called 'Landscape with Trees at Evening', and the whole thing is a symphony in grey and black, made entirely of lines. I imagine Van Oosterzee with his etching needle, digging into the plate, trying to get at the feeling of twilight. See how he's scratched the sky, pulling the needle across the surface in one direction? It reminds me of Twombly's mark-making, except here it’s more about atmosphere than gesture. I wonder if he was thinking about the Barbizon school, those landscape painters who were also obsessed with capturing the fleeting effects of light. Artists are always talking to each other, across time, riffing on each other’s ideas. Van Oosterzee is doing his version of a timeless conversation about the power of nature, of what we can learn from a copse of trees at dusk. It’s moody, quiet, and all about feeling, not about clarity.