Rivierlandschap 1840 - 1880

This is Johannes Tavenraat’s pen drawing, Rivierlandschap, at the Rijksmuseum. The drawing captures a Dutch riverscape dominated by a windmill. Notice how Tavenraat uses the stark contrast of black ink on a light ground to focus our attention on the windmill’s structure. The reflection in the water dissolves the solidity of the form into fractured lines. The overall composition can be understood through structuralist ideas. Tavenraat has reduced the landscape to a series of binary oppositions. These can be seen in the solid versus liquid, light versus dark, and the defined structure of the windmill versus the amorphous reflection. Through this minimalist composition, Tavenraat invites us to contemplate how such simple oppositions come together to represent a complex reality. The drawing embodies the ongoing interplay between representation and abstraction.