Landschap, mogelijk met een omheining 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this drawing, ‘Landschap, mogelijk met een omheining’ with graphite. It’s all about marks, isn’t it? Scratchy, energetic marks, that build up this open field, some trees. The graphite is so immediate, like a thought caught on paper, a feeling of walking through a copse, just scribbled down. You can almost feel the pressure of the artist's hand, the way the graphite drags and catches on the page. Look at the lower left corner, see how the marks get darker, more insistent, as if the artist was trying to ground the scene, to give it some weight. It reminds me a little of Twombly, in its looseness, its sense of searching. But where Twombly is all grand gestures, this feels more intimate, more like a private conversation with the landscape. It's a reminder that art is always a process, a way of seeing and thinking, not just a finished product.