Loofbomen aan het water 1872 - 1939

Egbert Rubertus Derk Schaap made this drawing, Loofbomen aan het water, with crayon or charcoal, a smudgy kind of medium perfect for capturing light flickering on water and filtering through the foliage of trees. I imagine Schaap outside with his pad, rapidly capturing the scene before him with an economy of marks. The darks are dense and massy, while the lights are suggested by the barest of lines, giving it all a hushed, atmospheric quality. Look at the way he uses these vertical strokes to suggest the density of the trees on the left - it's almost like a screen. You can feel the energy of his hand moving across the page. Schaap’s work reminds me of other landscape artists like the Barbizon school, who were also interested in capturing the fleeting effects of nature. Like them, he’s having a conversation with the natural world and with other artists, working through seeing, feeling and rendering. And because Schaap has left us with a drawing rather than a fully resolved image, we can join in with the process too.