Strand van Domburg 1917

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print of the beach at Domburg, probably around 1919, using etching. The whole thing looks kind of scratched into the plate, doesn’t it? Like he was digging for something in the sand, maybe buried treasure, who knows! I can imagine him dragging his tool across the metal, each line a little decision, trying to capture the starkness of the dunes. The darks are so intense. Look at how they pull forward. The surface of the sea and the horizon are barely there, just a ghost of a memory of a line. The dark strokes, those are the things that are present, right here, right now. It reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker's landscapes. They both have this real directness that cuts right through any prettiness. It's like they're saying, "Here it is, the world, raw and unfiltered." And isn't that what art is all about? Showing us something real, something true, even if it's a little rough around the edges.