Landschap met bomen 1913 - 1917

Alexander Shilling made this landscape with trees, probably with a graphite pencil, in, well, we don't know exactly when. But look at how the shading on the trees creates this sense of density and form, it's almost sculptural, right? There’s something so immediate about a drawing like this. You can almost feel the artist working, quickly laying down these marks to capture the scene. See how the texture of the paper comes through, giving the image this sense of lightness? The lines are confident and expressive. My favorite bit is the way the trees are rendered with these simple, repeated strokes. It's like Shilling is showing us how to see the world in terms of marks and gestures. It makes me think of Guston’s late drawings, where the forms are so blunt and direct, like someone trying to get something down before it disappears. Ultimately, this drawing leaves room for interpretation, and it's precisely in that ambiguity that art finds its power.