Polderhuis 1924

This is Frederik van der Harst's ‘Polderhuis,’ an etching made sometime in the past. Look at how the textures and tones are built. The artist is using line to build up the image, in what must be quite a slow, meditative process. The marks that make up the image of the Polderhuis are finely made with a light, even touch. The eye is drawn to the water, where the etched lines are reflected back on themselves. Note how the reflections of the buildings and trees are almost as solid as the buildings themselves. This gives the scene a dreamlike quality, like it is not quite real, but held in aspic. The trees at the back of the composition seem to be watching the scene like an audience. There's something of the early work of Mondrian in the way van der Harst simplifies the real world into an arrangement of hatched lines. But this also has a graphic feel that reminds me of outsider artists like Madge Gill. Maybe this is closer to folk art? Either way, there's a real sense of craft here.