Extensive landscape – Nowe Miasto 1935

Zygmunt Waliszewski made this landscape of Nowe Miasto with washes and lines of ink. There's a spontaneous feel to the whole thing, like he was trying to capture the essence of the place quickly. I love the way Waliszewski uses ink, letting it pool in some areas, creating depth and shadow, and keeping it light and airy in others. Look at the hillside on the right, he's scribbled it in a way that feels almost abstract. These marks create a sense of movement and energy. Then he’s drawn vertical trunks with soft brushy canopies with bold, confident strokes, creating a layered composition. This reminds me of some of the landscape drawings of Cézanne. But where Cézanne is all about structure and form, Waliszewski seems more interested in capturing the mood of a place. And isn’t that what art is all about, wrestling with the world, and trying to make sense of it all, one brushstroke at a time?