Landschap met bomen aan water 1815 - 1867

Editor: Here we have Willem van Dielen's "Landschap met bomen aan water," placing it sometime between 1815 and 1867. It appears to be a pencil and etching drawing. The overall mood feels quiet and a bit melancholy, don’t you think? What do you see in terms of its formal qualities? Curator: Precisely, melancholy. Note the emphasis on line –observe how Van Dielen masterfully employs hatching and cross-hatching to create tonal variations, implying form and depth with stark strokes. Where does he succeed, and where does the drawing become more like a doodle? Editor: I think where the artist describes the reflections in the water, there's a looseness that becomes distracting. But overall, the light pencil work builds a beautiful atmosphere, a romantic tone overall. The eye struggles, though, to find a focal point. Curator: Struggle is appropriate; there are many points competing for your eye, such as the stark contrast in tone between the banks and sky, however faint that line may be. But what of the gesture of the trees? Notice the flow – almost calligraphic in its elegance. How does this dynamism inform your interpretation? Editor: Now that you point it out, I see that the rhythm the trees create keeps the eye circulating. They bring structure to the landscape, don't they? It shows that this sketch does possess its own sense of order after all, despite the seeming disorder of the hand. Curator: Precisely! Form arises from what initially appeared to be chaos. Consider how that reflects broader notions of Romanticism, too. I'm pleased that you came to that conclusion yourself. Editor: Thank you! It's helpful to think about the artistic process of order versus spontaneity in this context, because that wasn't obvious at first glance.