Landschap met boerderij 1873 - 1933

This landscape with a farm, created by Hermannus Adrianus van Oosterzee, gives us a world in gentle shades of grey. Imagine the artist, eyes squinting just a bit to be able to really see the differences between each tone. The careful shading defines the shapes, the rounded tops of the bare trees like puffs of smoke. You can see the house in the middle ground, solid and dependable but softened with its thatched roof. I wonder what the artist was thinking about when he created this piece. Was he looking back at older traditions of landscape painting? Or perhaps he was trying to capture a scene from his own life? This piece reminds me that painting is like this ongoing conversation, artists talking to each other across time. He’s using what’s come before him to talk about something new. And isn't that what we’re all trying to do?