Boomstronk 1899 - 1920

Curator: We’re looking at "Boomstronk," a pencil and pen drawing made by Jan Mankes, likely sometime between 1899 and 1920. Editor: The delicate linework really draws you in. There's a real quietness to it; almost austere. The bare tree seems vulnerable against the stark white ground. Curator: It’s fascinating how Mankes manages to convey so much with such sparse detail. The focus is truly on form and line; that delicate network of branches, those bulbous outgrowths. The top right corner also has other floral sketches with very subtle detailing. Editor: And even with its starkness, the realism is undeniable. I am intrigued by what look to me like the ghostly or slightly out-of-focus images of other plants above the central tree. It reminds me of early photographs where the movement can blur images. What would a historian make of a very simple sketch like this, I wonder? It's absent people, full of atmosphere. Curator: Landscape art held particular resonance at the time, representing national identity and the natural world increasingly threatened by industrialization. These simple trees were everywhere; ubiquitous, yet this level of dedication shows an intent, it seeks to memorialize the simplicity. You can almost see Mankes' concentrated gaze upon this lone subject as he records every slight movement of its limbs. I think what he wanted to represent was simply an unsullied and ideal landscape for him. It's that desire, or search, for the bucolic idyll. Editor: Do you think that simplicity of means allows us to more easily see the reality of trees themselves, a reminder of the underlying architecture of form inherent to all living beings? Or even beyond that... to give us something closer to a tree's felt experience of existing in the world? Curator: I wouldn't dismiss such an intimate response, but to see beyond structure into a plant's "experience" is probably romanticising too far! This artwork truly reveals the enduring power of form, of realism to evoke emotion. It's a drawing where simplicity meets precision, prompting questions about art’s purpose. Editor: Precisely! It's certainly given me much to think about. Thanks for expanding the context and meaning embedded within this sketch, "Boomstronk."