Heuvellandschap met bomen 1913

Curator: Lodewijk Schelfhout's "Heuvellandschap met bomen," or "Hilly Landscape with Trees," an etching and drypoint from 1913, feels incredibly dense to me, a dark world. Editor: Oh, my first impression is brooding. It feels like standing on the edge of a forest just before a storm. You can almost smell the damp earth. Curator: It's interesting that you say that. The symbol of the forest often is deeply psychological, and it's easy to see why. Schelfhout’s technique certainly lends itself to this, don’t you think? He uses hatching, the little lines, so expressively, making the trees both menacing and alive. Editor: Absolutely, there’s something primeval about it. Etching and drypoint, creating those rich blacks, gives it an archaic, almost haunted feel, like an ancient wood where the veil is thin. I’m drawn to the dark, looming shapes of the trees. Curator: And they're not simply "trees," are they? Consider how the trees almost act as figures—guardians even—the composition lends itself to this. In folk tales and mythology, forests are rarely just places of wood; they're liminal spaces, transitional zones. Editor: I can definitely feel that transitional aspect. And I can't help but wonder what personal symbolic weight that those woods would carry for Schelfhout himself in 1913... that shadow of pre-war dread would linger, certainly. It would haunt the light he filters on this landscape... Curator: I never thought of it in that context. Given when this work was made, there could be something to it—an impending storm brewing on the horizon, and in his psyche, not only naturalistic expression. It does lend a completely new resonance. Editor: I'm glad we were able to shed a new light on "Heuvellandschap met bomen"—and a few brooding shades, too. Curator: Indeed! A glimpse into the woods that holds darkness but inspires the mind to reflect!