Landschap 1872 - 1939

Egbert Rubertus Derk Schaap made this landscape drawing with pencil on paper. It’s all about seeing and feeling, isn’t it? I love how the whole scene is built up from a series of marks and scribbles. The trees and foliage in the left foreground are more tightly packed than the more spacious and undefined ground, leading the eye into the distance. You get the sense that Derk Schaap isn't trying to represent a particular view exactly, but he’s trying to capture an atmospheric impression, like a memory trace. Look at the texture – the dry scratchiness of the pencil against the soft grain of the paper. There’s a tension between control and looseness. The marks feel quick and spontaneous, like he was trying to keep up with a fleeting moment. This reminds me of other landscape artists like Hercules Segers. They both have this feeling of being totally immersed in the landscape, where seeing becomes a form of thinking. It’s not about showing us something, but about sharing a way of looking.