Landschap met bloemen 1943

Arend Hendriks made this print, "Landschap met bloemen", which translates to "Landscape with flowers", sometime in the first half of the 20th century, using etching and possibly drypoint. Look closely, and you can see the traces of the artist's hand, the fine lines creating intricate details across the landscape. I imagine Hendriks hunched over his plate, carefully incising each line, building up the image bit by bit. There's a tension here between the soft, organic forms of the flowers in the foreground and the more structured landscape behind. Were they made on the spot, or from memory and imagination? That contrast draws me in, making me think about the relationship between observation and interpretation. He was part of a lineage of artists exploring landscape, translating the world into his own visual language, and passing it on to us to interpret. Each mark embodies feeling.