Boerderij in een winterlandschap 1942

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this sketch of a farm in a winter landscape, likely in the early 20th century, with delicate strokes of graphite on paper. I imagine him standing out in the cold with his sketchbook, shivering as he captures the scene. The bare trees reach up like tangled thoughts, and the snow sits heavy on the branches. It's all very still, very quiet. The bridge in the distance creates a sense of perspective and pulls you into the scene. The dark lines create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. It reminds me of the work of other landscape artists, like the Dutch Masters, who found beauty in the everyday. The scratches of the graphite capture a sense of the cold, the starkness of winter. It's like a visual poem, a quiet meditation on nature. We can see the artist experimenting with light and shadow, the subtleties of tone. It’s so cool how artists over time respond to the world and leave their mark through the simple act of image-making.