Polderlandschap met vlonders 1908

This is Herman Heuff's "Polderlandschap met vlonders", an etching, but when it was made exactly is a mystery. It feels like a memory, right? That's the thing about etching; it’s a kind of drawing with acid and ink, and that can make for some wonderfully suggestive marks. Look closely, and you'll see how much information Heuff gets from so little. The ink is really just on the surface. Notice the shadow of the stilts holding up the deck. The etched line captures light, reflection, atmosphere. It's all there with very little tonal variation. It reminds me of James Ensor, a Belgian painter who was doing some crazy, radical stuff with etching around the same time, experimenting with line, and also seeing how little you can do to make something sing. Like Ensor, Heuff really understood that art isn't about answers, but about endless, beautiful questions.