Duinlandschap 1881 - 1927

This is Duinlandschap, or Dunescape, by Johan Antonie de Jonge, a sketch across two pages using pencil and watercolour. I really love the tentative searching quality of the marks. It’s like de Jonge is feeling his way through the landscape, not trying to capture it exactly but just get the gist of it. It feels really immediate and intimate, like a direct record of his experience in that moment. Look how the pencil lines scratch across the dunes, and the watercolour washes pull the sky down. The way he’s used the white of the paper to create the light and airy feeling is great, especially next to the second, untouched page. You can see the landscape is being built up layer by layer, idea by idea, until it is finished, or maybe abandoned to the next, in an ongoing conversation.