De Witte Bergen te Laren 1914 - 1915

Editor: Here we have Frans Smissaert's "De Witte Bergen te Laren," created around 1914-1915. It's a landscape drawing using pencil and frottage. The landscape has this expansive and rather still feeling; what do you see in it? Curator: Well, first notice how the artist used a limited palette, which really emphasizes the starkness and perceived quietude you mention. Consider the 'white hills,' almost like dunes – these likely symbolize perseverance or endurance in Dutch landscape art. How do they appear to you: steadfast, or vulnerable? Editor: That's interesting…I hadn't considered a deeper meaning to the hills. I saw them as stationary but vulnerable because the pencil lines look so delicate. Does the frottage contribute to their perceived vulnerability, as well? Curator: Precisely. Frottage introduces texture—an element of the unknown and perhaps uncontrollable – a rubbing, transferring an image… Consider it as a whisper of the unconscious, imprinted onto the 'hills'. The artist, through these choices, subtly alludes to themes far grander than simply a scene. Editor: That's such an interesting interpretation; I’ll definitely look at landscapes differently now. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. Keep looking closely, and you'll see more than just what's on the surface.