Berglandschap c. 1901 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this landscape drawing, Berglandschap, using what looks like pencil or charcoal. You know, it’s amazing how a few simple marks can evoke a whole world. I can almost feel the scratch of the charcoal on the page, the artist’s hand moving quickly to capture the scene. The mountains in the background are just a quick squiggle, a line, but they’re definitely mountains, right? I imagine de Jonge standing there, maybe a bit cold, trying to get the feeling of the place down before the light changes, simplifying and editing, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. And what about that dark, almost foreboding area in the middle? Is it a forest? A shadow? Or just a way to balance the composition? It kind of reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s darker landscapes, where things are a bit murky and ambiguous. It’s funny how artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time and place. They leave these little sketches for us to find, sparking our imaginations, inspiring us to pick up a pencil and make our own marks.