Bos met gekapte bomen 1881 - 1927

This landscape drawing of felled trees was made by Johan Antonie de Jonge, who lived from 1864 to 1927. You know, as a painter myself, when I look at this drawing, I really feel for De Jonge. I mean, you can see him there, charcoal in hand, trying to capture the light as it filters through the ravaged landscape, right? The tree stumps, reduced to jagged lines, echo the frenetic energy of the charcoal marks. I can imagine him wrestling with the page, smudging, erasing, building up tone until it almost feels like you're standing there in that quiet grove. It reminds me of Constable, who believed painting was a form of research, and in a way this drawing embodies that sentiment. De Jonge isn't just representing a scene, he's trying to understand something about light, space, and maybe even loss through the act of drawing. It's almost like he's speaking to us across time, a whisper of shared experience.