Heide bij Exloo c. 1904 - 1912

Ferdinand Oldewelt made this landscape drawing of Heide bij Exloo with graphite pencil. The strokes are quick and sure, capturing the essence of the heath. You can almost feel the scratch of the pencil on the paper. I imagine Oldewelt standing there, squinting in the sun, rapidly trying to capture the scene. See how the road leads your eye into the distance, like an invitation to wander. The trees on the right are spindly, their branches reaching up like fingers. They remind me of drawings by Van Gogh! There’s a real immediacy to the piece, a sense of being right there in the Dutch countryside. It shows how drawing connects us to a specific place and time. Artists are constantly in dialogue with each other. Oldewelt seems to be talking to other landscape artists through time.