Landskab med egetræer. Føns 1908

Fritz Syberg drew this landscape with oak trees in Føns, sometime around 1908. It's all about line, isn't it? Like a spider web, the drawing is built up from these marks made with a pen. For me, that's the best artmaking, when you can see the process. Look at the way he uses these tiny little hatching marks to create areas of shadow and depth. It's almost like he's knitting the landscape together. What I love about these drawings is that you can see the artist thinking, working through problems right there on the page. Syberg isn't trying to hide anything from us. He's saying, "Here's how I see the world, one line at a time." Reminds me of Van Gogh and his reed pen drawings. There's a similar energy, a similar love of the landscape. But where Van Gogh is all about emotion, Syberg feels more grounded, more rooted in the earth. Anyway, there's always more to see, more to think about with every view.