Heuvellandschap met industrie 1913

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this landscape with industry, a print, so it’s all about the process of mark making, the pressure, the ink, the matrix. What I notice first is the texture. It feels almost sculpted. See how the light flares down from the sky, like a stage light over the hills? The hills have been built up with layers of hatched lines, so it’s all tone on tone, a very material way of building form. Look at the lower left of the image, at the spindly vertical marks that suggest a forest. The way they have been laid down is very regular, almost like musical notation. This feels very much like the work of an artist responding to the industrial world, but also filtering it through a very personal lens. I think of Lyonel Feininger, another printmaker, who used tone and shade to make very personal work. What do you see?