Heuvellandschap met bomen 1913

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this landscape with trees, sometime around the early 20th century, and wow, does it have some serious energy. It's like he’s wrestling with the landscape, turning it into something almost volcanic with these dark, scratchy lines. I can imagine Schelfhout out there, maybe a bit grumpy, totally focused, and building up this scene one furious mark at a time. It reminds me of some of the German Expressionists, that same feeling of nature being this overwhelming, almost threatening force. Look at how the lines carve out the shapes, making the trees and hills feel so solid and heavy. It's cool how he uses just black and white to create so much depth and texture; it’s kind of abstract but super real at the same time. Artists are always riffing off each other, you know, and it’s interesting to see how Schelfhout takes something as traditional as landscape and gives it this totally unique, edgy spin.