Landschap 1914 - 1916

Willem Cornelis Rip created this landscape drawing with pencil, depicting trees reaching skyward, their bare branches a stark silhouette against the horizon. Consider the ancient symbolism of trees—often representing life, growth, and connection between earth and sky. In countless cultures, the tree is the axis mundi, the center of the world. In Rip's sketch, these trees stand like silent witnesses. We see similar motifs in Norse mythology with Yggdrasil, the world tree connecting different realms. The bare branches, while simple, carry a powerful emotional charge. They evoke a sense of starkness and the transience of life, echoing the cyclical nature of seasons. This mirrors the subconscious human recognition of mortality, a theme that resurfaces through time and culture. Just as the trees shed their leaves, so too does life change.