Kalenderblad voor maart 1912 met spreeuwen in een boom 1911

This calendar page for March 1912, made by Theo van Hoytema, is a muted symphony in browns, beiges, and blacks, a real earthy palette. I can almost feel Hoytema hunched over his work, meticulously inking each line, each tiny detail of those starlings perched in the bare branches. The whole thing has a kind of quiet energy. I can imagine him being really into Japanese prints, maybe riffing off Hokusai, but with a Northern European twist. Those birds are like little ink blots, full of personality. And then, down below, the grid of the calendar, so orderly, yet surrounded by these elegant geese. What was he thinking when he made this? Maybe something about the passage of time, the rhythm of nature, the way the seasons turn. It's like he's saying, "Here’s your schedule, but don't forget the wildness of the world, the beauty of the everyday." It's a reminder that art is always talking to art, each artist borrowing, stealing, transforming, and that paintings are just one way of seeing, thinking, and feeling our way through the world.