Gezicht op landschap met rivier 1905

Simon Moulijn made this landscape view with graphite, or maybe charcoal, I'm not sure! But you can imagine him in front of the scene, translating it slowly into shades of gray, building up the textures of trees and water, the way light falls on the land. I wonder if Simon felt a quiet joy making this? I'm thinking about all the time and labor needed to build this up, bit by bit. You know, you can feel an artist's touch when they keep things simple. Here, the artist's marks are very delicate, controlled, yet somehow, everything feels loose. It's like the artist is showing the viewer a different way to look, you know? Focusing on the tonal range of a limited palette is challenging but it's something painters have been doing forever, from the old masters to Gerhard Richter. What I really like about this piece is how it takes something real, like a landscape, but it makes it something totally new, too. Like a conversation that keeps evolving, it shows how artists keep talking to each other across time.