Wilgen aan de sloot bij de Binckhorstlaan in Den Haag 1888 - 1934

This copperplate etching called ‘Willows along the ditch at the Binckhorstlaan in The Hague’ was made by Willem Adrianus Grondhout. You can see the willows reflected in the water, their branches and leaves delicately rendered. I imagine Grondhout outside, under a wide open Dutch sky. This scene is worked with tiny hatched lines and reminds me of a pencil drawing, but he didn't use a pencil at all. What’s so amazing is that it’s an etching, meaning he used acid to eat away at the metal plate, then printed it. Look how he’s scratched the surface, giving the impression of light flickering through the trees and casting shadows on the ground. There’s a beautiful sense of movement in the branches, as if they’re swaying in the breeze. It also reminds me of some etchings by Hercules Segers, who also loved printing landscapes. Artists share ideas like this all the time. They see something and reinvent it. The willows become a melancholic motif, don't you think? They become kind of… alive. It’s more than just representation; it's an atmospheric mood.