Landschap met boerderijen before 1903

Here we have "Landschap met boerderijen," a small, monochrome print by A. Richter. It's a landscape, but really, it's a study in contrasts. Look how the artist coaxes depth out of the image using only shades of grey. Up front, short, dark dashes make for rough texture on the ground. These contrast with the flat, grey area that makes up most of the scene, and with the taller, softer trees. Together, the artist is asking: how many ways can we render the same tonal value? For me, the magic is in the top right corner, where the dark, angular rooftops push up against the blurry grey of the sky. It's a small detail, but it captures the overall dynamic of the piece: an interplay of the hard and soft, the defined and undefined, the real and the imagined. It makes me think of the landscapes of Gustave Courbet, who was also interested in depicting the world as he saw it, without idealization. This print is both a window onto a world, and a testament to the artist’s vision.