To bønder på en skovsti 1625 - 1674

Jan Ruyscher created this etching, "Two Peasants on a Forest Path," using etching on paper. It presents a world meticulously rendered in miniature. Notice how Ruyscher structures the composition through contrasting textures and linear patterns. The sharp, vertical lines of the trees on the right create a visual tension with the softer, more organic forms of the foliage in the center. This interplay destabilizes a conventional reading of landscape, inviting us to consider the deeper structures at play. The path, subtly winding, draws our eye through a constructed space. The semiotic elements – the trees, the figures – function less as representations and more as signs within a visual language. In Ruyscher’s hands, the etching needle becomes a tool not just for depiction, but for a sophisticated manipulation of form and space, questioning our understanding of representation itself.