Frankendael before 1952

This is Frankendael, a woodcut made by Johan van Hell, though we don't know exactly when. The stark contrast between black and white makes you really feel the cold of the snowy scene. The process of woodcutting is so physical, a real conversation between the artist and the material. Look closely at how Van Hell carves the trees. The marks are sharp and decisive, almost violent. You can feel the pressure of the tool, the artist wrestling with the wood. The grain of the wood seems to echo the branches reaching up, a kind of formal and material rhyme. It's not just a picture of trees; it's about the act of making, the struggle to bring something into being. This reminds me a little of some of the German Expressionist woodcuts. Like them, Van Hell isn’t just representing a scene, he’s imbuing it with emotion, with a sense of urgency and maybe even anxiety. Art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth across time, picking up threads and weaving new patterns.