Landschap met bergen aan het water 1840 - 1841

Johannes Tavenraat rendered this landscape with mountains by the water in simple pencil strokes. The mountains, rising as stoic monoliths, have long been symbols of the eternal and the divine, evoking a sense of awe and spiritual seeking. We see echoes of such reverence in earlier traditions, where mountains are the abodes of gods and goddesses, a motif found from the peaks of Olympus to Mount Meru. Yet, here in Tavenraat's sketch, these symbols take on a more internal dimension. Consider how the form of the mountain, often a symbol of stability, here seems sketched in a fleeting moment, almost mirage-like. Might this imply a subconscious interplay between the eternal and the ephemeral, a reflection of our fleeting existence against the backdrop of timeless nature? Thus, the mountain endures, its symbolism ever-shifting, inviting contemplation across the ages.