Landschap met bomen en twee figuren 1910 - 1917

This is a graphite drawing by Alexander Shilling made in 1910 inside a sketchbook. You can see how the marks are tentative, searching. The artist has built up the image through many, many lines. It makes me think of trying to recall a place from memory. I wonder if Shilling was thinking about the work of other artists while drawing this. Perhaps he had seen some landscape drawings by 18th century artists like Gainsborough or Sandby. Or maybe he was looking at artists like Daubigny, who were working directly from nature. The image in the right hand side of the sketchbook is of a craggy landscape that looks like a dark fortress, a menacing presence looming over the space. Shilling isn't trying to impress us or to achieve any kind of grand aesthetic effect. I think that he is just recording a vision, a thought. And that's enough.