Heuvellandschap met bomen c. 1839 - 1872

Johannes Tavenraat sketched this landscape with trees using graphite on paper. The initial impression is of a skeletal structure, a landscape barely there, rendered with delicate, almost hesitant lines. These lines traverse the paper, mapping out trees and terrain with minimal detail. What strikes me is the seeming incompleteness, the sketch teetering on the edge of abstraction. This incompleteness prompts us to consider the act of drawing itself. Tavenraat isn't just representing a landscape; he's capturing the very process of seeing and recording. The visible notations and scribbles, usually hidden in a finished work, become integral, revealing the artist's thought process. Tavenraat's sketch destabilizes the traditional notion of landscape as a complete, picturesque scene. Instead, it offers a fragmented, provisional view, emphasizing the subjective and transient nature of perception. This sketch invites us to contemplate the nature of representation and the role of the artist in shaping our understanding of the world.