Groep figuren onder bomen 1924

Willem de Zwart made this etching, *Groep figuren onder bomen*, which translates to "Group of figures under trees," using a plate and acid, pulling the image from the metal, like magic. The all-over use of line creates a kind of haze in the scene, figures emerge from a ground of tone. Is it morning or evening? Are they having tea? Look at the confident strokes used to indicate the tree trunks in the foreground. These marks have a rhythm to them, like the brushstrokes in a painting by Cézanne. The way the lines create form, but also flatten the image, has a similar feeling. De Zwart, working in the late 19th and early 20th century, was part of a longer conversation about how we see and how to make a picture, an idea that continues to evolve to this day.