Rivierlandschap met twee torens en een zeilboot 1926

Antoon Derkzen van Angeren made this river landscape with paint, maybe oil, probably sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The whole image has an umber tint, like a sepia photograph, and it feels like it's been built up in layers. Looking at the bottom of the work, you can see these lovely gestural marks used to create the sense of reeds or grasses in the foreground. They're quite free and the paint is thin, almost like a wash. I like the way the artist hasn’t laboured over it, he’s let the paint do its thing and trusted the process. It reminds me a little of Hercules Segers, that Dutch printmaker who was obsessed with surface and texture. Like Segers, van Angeren isn't trying to create a perfect illusion, he's more interested in the materiality of the paint itself, in the way it can evoke a mood or a feeling. For me, it’s a feeling of quiet melancholy.