Ex libris van Van Duyl 1927

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this Ex libris van Van Duyl sometime around 1917. The mark-making here is incredible, it's so precise, like a tiny universe of lines and dots. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the plate, building up these intricate patterns. Look at the wings of the bird. See how they're made up of all these tiny scales? Each one is carefully rendered, giving the whole image a sense of texture and depth, it's incredibly tactile, even though it's just a print. The level of detail really draws you in, and makes you want to look closer. It reminds me a little bit of Dürer, in the way he also meticulously observed and recorded the natural world. But Schelfhout also brings his own unique vision to the work, which celebrates the beauty and complexity, even in the tiniest of things. It's a reminder that art is always an ongoing conversation, a dialogue between artists across time.