Veld met hooioppers 1867 - 1935

Maurits van der Valk made this print of haystacks somewhere in the Dutch countryside; it’s a place rendered with delicate etching. I can feel van der Valk’s hand moving across the plate, pulling the needle to define these round, thatched forms. Was he out in the field making marks directly from life? Or was he remembering it later in the studio? There’s a freshness here, a freedom. The stacks almost huddle together, like people. They are weighty, bulky, but so sensitively drawn. I see some kind of shared inquiry here between van der Valk and other artists like, say, Van Gogh, who also worked in the Netherlands around the same time. Each working to find their own way of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. Each sharing something essential about the landscapes around them. Artists are always in conversation, aren’t they? Inspiring each other across time, trading ideas. It’s like a big, messy, beautiful relay race.