Schets van een landschap Possibly 1903 - 1929

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this little landscape sketch with graphite, probably en plein air, or maybe from memory later in the studio. I like to imagine the artist quickly capturing the essence of the landscape with spare and tentative strokes, barely there but somehow still evocative. Just a few lines and smudges that define the form of the composition. The trees, the sky, the general vibe of the scene. There's a real lightness to the touch, a feeling of airiness, as though he’s not weighing down the paper with heavy lines but letting the scene emerge from a kind of haze. I wonder if he had a certain Japanese artist in mind? There is something in common with Eastern landscape drawings. Holst must have been thinking about how little you need to suggest a whole world. It’s like a whispered secret among artists, this ability to conjure something from almost nothing. And it reminds me that painting, at its core, is about seeing and feeling, not just depicting. We are all in conversation with one another, responding to each other's attempts to capture something true about the world.