Landschap met molen in de Binckhorst in Den Haag 1916

This landscape with a mill in the Binckhorst in Den Haag, made by Willem Adrianus Grondhout, probably in 1916, is a reminder that artmaking is always a conversation. The black and white palette gives a timeless quality to the scene, like a memory half-forgotten. The physical texture is smooth, but the eye is tricked, because the etching lines give a palpable sense of depth. Look at the way the artist renders the trees in the foreground; they’re these skeletal scribbles, so different from the solid form of the mill. It’s as if the artist is using the landscape to explore different kinds of mark-making, playing with light and shadow to create a world that feels both real and dreamlike. Grondhout reminds me of Whistler, or maybe even some of the slightly later Camden Town painters in London, finding beauty in the everyday, and in the materiality of the printmaking process. Art is about opening up possibilities, and Grondhout invites us to see the world with fresh eyes.