Bos in een heuvellandschap 1895 - 1931

Jan Fekkes made this landscape, ‘Bos in een heuvellandschap,’ with a pencil, or maybe charcoal. It’s not so much about what it depicts, but more about how Fekkes gets there. You can see the mark-making—the rubbing, the smudging—it’s like the whole image is built up from a collection of tiny gestures. I’m really drawn to how the light filters through the trees. The forest is both dense and open, solid and dissolving, all at the same time! It's a place to get lost in, where every mark is a path to somewhere, or nowhere. The pencil strokes feel so direct, like the artist was right there, feeling the breeze, hearing the leaves rustle. Think about someone like Corot, who was also fascinated by the way light could transform a landscape. Both artists remind us that seeing isn’t just about recording what’s there, but about how we feel, how we move, and how we remember.