IJsschotsen op de Maas, januari 1809 1809

David-Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville created this drawing, "Ice Floes on the Maas, January 1809" with pen and brush in grey ink. The immediate experience is one of geometric abstraction, where ice floes are rendered as stark, angular shapes. Humbert de Superville was interested in a system of signs, or what he called "significant lines," to convey feeling and meaning. In this winter landscape, the hard lines and flat planes used to depict the ice, combined with the monochromatic palette, generate a sense of coldness, and even desolation. The composition is structured as a series of horizontal layers receding into the distance, yet these layers are disrupted by the jagged edges and fractured surfaces of the ice. This disruption destabilizes any conventional sense of depth, and suggests a landscape in a state of collapse. It is a powerful meditation on nature as a force that defies order. The drawing asks us to reflect on how we perceive and categorize the world around us.