Kalenderblad voor juli 1912 met een waterrijk landschap met vogels 1911

Theo van Hoytema made this calendar page for July 1912, with a water-rich landscape dotted with birds. It looks like a lithograph, so I imagine him drawing with a greasy crayon directly on the stone, building up these complex layers of hatching. You can see the hours he must have spent making the reeds, layer upon layer, to give them that kind of depth and weight. He probably had to stop and sharpen his litho crayon every now and then. It's interesting to think about how the same skills that make that landscape believable also organize time in the form of a calendar. I like that he frames the calendar in foliage. Artists inspire each other across time, and while you can certainly see the influence of Japanese prints here, that doesn’t stop him from finding a way to put his own mark on the world. Every artist takes what they need and makes something new.