Landschap met bomen en een schuur 1933

Henk Henriët made this landscape with trees and a shed with graphite on paper. I love the subtle gradations of tone Henriët coaxes from what is, after all, just graphite. You can almost feel the scratch of the pencil across the page, building up the scene. The artist is working in a time of war, sketching a landscape with the barest of means. I imagine Henriët, caught in this moment, head down, shading with graphite, and perhaps thinking of earlier landscape artists like the Dutch master Jacob van Ruisdael. There’s a similar somberness, a sense of nature’s quiet strength. The shed, a simple geometric form, adds a human element, a quiet note of habitation amidst the trees. Henriët focuses on the feeling of the place, its quiet strength and resilience. Like all artists, he stands on the shoulders of those who came before, drawing inspiration while forging his own path.