Heuvellandschap met jager 1939

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this etching, "Heuvellandschap met jager", which translates to "Hilly Landscape with Hunter", at an unknown date using etching. I love how the hatching and cross-hatching describe the landscape, it's like he's building the scene with tiny, deliberate marks. The texture is incredible, you can almost feel the roughness of the rocks and the density of the trees. The limited color palette makes you focus on the lines and shapes. There's a small figure in the lower left, a hunter, who seems dwarfed by the landscape. It reminds me of a stage set, with the town in the distance like a backdrop. Schelfhout’s work has a lot in common with earlier Dutch landscape painters, like Jacob van Ruisdael. But there’s also a quirkiness here that feels modern. Art is always in conversation, you know? It's an ongoing remix of ideas and techniques.