Kalenderblad augustus met pelikanen 1916

This calendar page featuring pelicans was made by Theo van Hoytema, a Dutch artist, probably using lithography. It’s all about process here, a dance of lines and gentle colour, more about the rhythm of the making than any kind of perfect representation. The texture is like a gentle whisper, look closely and you can almost feel the grain of the lithographic stone. Soft greens and browns create a calm, dreamy atmosphere. The pelicans themselves are these quirky, almost comical characters. See the pelican head sticking up on the left-hand side of the calendar? It’s like a little doodle, a playful mark. The whole thing feels so handmade, so human. I’m reminded of the way Alex Katz paints figures, with this same kind of simplified, almost flattened form. But where Katz is all about cool detachment, Hoytema feels more intimate, more connected to the natural world. It's like he’s saying, let’s not take ourselves too seriously, let’s just enjoy the process.