Winterlandschap c. 1935

Bernard Essers made this black and white landscape. I'm thinking about the artist with his tools, working into this block – the concentration, the force, the patience. You know, making art is a lonely business, and you have to find a way to keep yourself company while you're doing it. Here, stark contrasts emerge, cut into the surface, with a vision of winter, of stark trees, and distant figures. There's a real moodiness in this piece. Those sharp edges, that strong contrast – it's like the artist is wrestling with something. Like the way the edges around the snow are rendered – those are all places where the artist made a decision, wasn't sure, re-worked it, came back to it. The artist is present in every moment, but it is the history of the work that is of greatest interest. This is how artists teach each other, across time.