Landschap met populier before 1903

H. Bachmann made this landscape with a poplar tree at an unknown date, and it's so tiny! Looking at this, I’m thinking about how simplicity can be a superpower. The monochrome palette here is so limited, so that Bachmann has to be incredibly smart about contrast and texture to create any sense of depth or movement. The image is full of tiny marks. Squiggles in the foreground give way to more ordered lines which build the verticality of the tree itself. I love how the reflections of the poplar in the water blur into each other, creating a kind of visual echo. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s subtle grids, where the faintest variations become deeply moving through repetition. This piece is less abstract, of course, but it shares that feeling of quiet contemplation. Both artists show that you don't need a lot of information to say something profound.