Veld met hooioppers 1867 - 1935

Maurits van der Valk made this etching of a hay field, and it's all about lines, right? It’s like he’s thinking through drawing. I’m drawn to the haystacks; each one is described with gentle strokes. It's like they're breathing. The etching feels both precise and kind of dreamy. I mean, look at how the lines curve to give us the volume of each haystack. The way he uses line to create texture, it almost feels like you could reach out and touch the rough surface of the hay. There’s a similar attention to detail in the landscape around the haystacks. See those horizontal lines across the top? They create depth. Van der Valk makes me think of Whistler; he’s another artist who had a deep understanding of the beauty of the everyday and of the graphic arts. But, in the end, all art is a conversation, right? Each artist adding their voice to the mix.