Gezicht op Rhenen met paard-en-wagens 1868 - 1937

Gert Stegeman made this delicate etching of Rhenen, with horse-drawn carts, sometime between 1873 and 1940. Can you imagine Stegeman, outside with his etching plate, rendered sensitive to every small tonal and textural variation? The marks are so subtle, but they build up to create a believable scene with great depth. A feeling for the light, the haze of the atmosphere, and the weight of the horses. He varies the pressure and speed of his hand to give us a strong sense of place. I wonder what he was thinking as he made this work. Did he see himself as part of a lineage of Dutch landscape artists? Did he have a particular audience in mind? I imagine he sought to find the extraordinary within the ordinary. Just like those artists whose work inspires us today, his vision encourages us to slow down and pay closer attention to the world around us.