Drie vogels vliegend in de regen 1893 - 1942

Jac Jongert made this woodcut print of three birds flying in the rain. There's a real sense of process, you can see the marks of the knife used to carve the image into the wood. It’s so immediate, like a sketch. The texture is amazing, the stark contrast of black ink on paper really emphasizes the physical quality of the medium. Look at the rain, those white dashes scattered across the inky sky. It looks like Jongert made these marks by hand, each one unique. This gives the sense of a heavy downpour. Notice the way he's captured the movement of the birds. Each bird has a different wing position, as if we've caught them mid-flight. This print reminds me of some of the German Expressionists like Heckel or Schmidt-Rottluff, who also used woodcut to create raw and powerful images of the natural world. But Jongert brings a kind of quiet intimacy to the scene, a feeling of solitude and resilience. It reminds us that even in the face of a storm, life goes on.