Landschap met water, mogelijk de zee 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this landscape with water, possibly the sea, using graphite on paper. Look at how the marks scumble and drag across the surface. You can almost feel the artist searching for a horizon, unsure whether to define the sea or the sky first. There’s this lovely hovering quality, a tension between wanting to capture something real, and also letting it remain vague. I think about de Jonge out there, maybe on a windy day, squinting at the light on the water. What was he thinking about as he made these marks? Was he trying to capture the feeling of the place, or was he more interested in the formal qualities of line and tone? It’s like he’s in conversation with the water, letting the pencil follow the ebb and flow. It reminds me of other artists who’ve tried to capture the sea. It's like they’re all talking to each other across time, riffing on the same theme, each adding their own little twist. The history of art is a conversation! And we can join it any time.