Heuvellandschap met bomen c. 1885 - 1902

Curator: Jozef Israëls created this evocative landscape drawing, aptly titled "Heuvellandschap met bomen"—"Hilly Landscape with Trees"—sometime between 1885 and 1902. It’s currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression? Bleak. Beautifully bleak, but definitely a muted and lonely sort of place. I can almost feel a chill wind blowing through those skeletal branches. Curator: Indeed, Israëls has masterfully captured a moment of stark vulnerability in nature. What strikes me is how he uses just pencil and subtle gradations to convey depth and texture. Editor: Exactly! The materiality itself—the graphite on paper—speaks volumes. This wasn’t some grand oil painting destined for a wealthy patron’s wall. This was an intimate encounter between the artist and his medium. I’m really looking at labor; at someone working diligently with simple resources. Did Israëls perhaps grind the graphite for the pencils? I can almost feel that granular reality... Curator: I see it more as a study, almost like a poem—stripped down to its raw essence, allowing a profound emotional resonance. He does this by using simple lines. Editor: Agreed, this connects to broader themes of the Hague School and their social realist depictions of the working class and agrarian life. Do we know for whom Israëls created these drawing and landscape depictions? I suppose these intimate sketches challenge those same high/low divides. Curator: I see a raw emotional honesty. While others created grandiose historical scenes, Israëls found beauty in the mundane, even desolate landscapes. A powerful testament to finding solace and inspiration even in the most barren landscapes. Editor: And what a wonderful commentary on labor that is—his or that of the trees! Curator: Thinking about the dialogue between the artist, subject, and ultimately the viewer, is key. Editor: Yes, reflecting on how artists can speak to material limitations and labor relations adds further poignancy, doesn’t it?