Heuvellandschap met jager 1939

This landscape with a hunter was etched by Lodewijk Schelfhout, and you know, it’s all about the lines. Imagine the artist hunched over the plate, carefully scoring the metal, thinking, rethinking, trying to capture the essence of this scene, like, where does the dark go? Where does the light stay out? It’s got a kind of dreamlike quality, right? With the craggy rocks and that fortified town perched on the hill. What was Schelfhout thinking when he made this, I wonder? I'm thinking about that little dude with a gun, that’s how I see it. The marks feel kind of urgent, don’t they? Like he’s trying to get something down before it disappears. Like a memory. These marks feel like he's got a job to do, and he wants you to see it. All these engravers, from Schongauer to now, they keep the conversation going. It’s like they’re all talking to each other across time.