Muzikant 1915

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print, Muzikant, on paper, but we don't know when. It's a landscape, but not a conventional one. The marks are dense, scratchy, a real hive of activity, but also very precise and controlled. You can tell Schelfhout was thinking through every single line. The figure's face is striking. All sharp angles and shadows, it feels almost sculptural. It's like the artist is trying to find the form within the darkness, carving it out with these insistent lines. There's a tension between the subject and the method, which gives the piece a real buzz. The guy looks a bit like a Cubist version of Rodin's Thinker. Schelfhout has that early modern interest in form that you see in Picasso or Braque, but with a folksy twist that makes it all his own.