Knotwilg voor hek before 1939

This is 'Knotwilg voor hek' by Pally van Schoonhoven van Beurden, and it looks like an etching on paper. The lines swarm and pool into this strange tree-like shape in front of a fence, or is it growing out of it? It feels like the tree is both there and not-there at the same time, like when you revisit a place and it both is and isn't how you remember it. The marks feel tentative, vulnerable. I get the sense that van Schoonhoven van Beurden hovered over this plate, working and reworking to find the sweet spot, between clarity and suggestion. The whole scene has a sort of dreamlike quality, the tree's form dissolving into the atmosphere, the pale tones adding to this sense of ethereality. It has a very specific kind of quietness and stillness, and makes me want to sit outside in the evening and just look. All kinds of printmaking have a way of doing that. It’s like they know that slowness is built right in.