Heuvellandschap met bomen bij een huis 1893

Hermannus Adrianus van Oosterzee created this landscape with trees near a house with crayon on paper sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Van Oosterzee lived through a period of immense social and political change. Industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of new social movements were transforming Dutch society. In this setting, landscape art took on new meanings, becoming a way to reflect on national identity, cultural values, and the relationship between humanity and nature. In this drawing, the house is dwarfed by the landscape around it. The density of the lines which form the trees and the field above them almost threaten to overwhelm the small structure below. The artist seems to be asking what the place of the domestic can be within an ever changing world. Are we safe in our homes, or are we at the mercy of something larger than ourselves?