Bosrand 1876 - 1936

Martinus Jacobus Nefkens made this etching titled 'Bosrand' sometime in the early twentieth century. It depicts a clump of trees at the edge of a forest. The composition is unspectacular. It does not monumentalize the trees like the work of the earlier Romantic painters. Nefkens was Dutch. The Netherlands possesses very little natural forest. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as industrialization took hold and cities grew, there was increasing pressure on the few wild spaces that remained. It’s possible to interpret this image as a celebration of the humble beauty of the Dutch landscape. It offers a quiet, almost melancholic reflection on the natural world. To find out more about the history of Dutch landscape painting, you might consult the records of art academies or exhibition reviews from the period. These resources could tell us how landscapes like this one were understood at the time.