Mountainous Landscape 1901

Here's Andreas Achenbach's "Mountainous Landscape," made with graphite on paper. You know, I can imagine him there, sketching away. The landscape feels like it's rising right up off the page, a bit like a dream, don't you think? It’s all built with marks, a collection of lines that describe this jagged landscape in such beautiful detail. He's really thought about how each mark adds to the whole thing. I love how the rocks are rendered, too. Look at the way the lines define the forms, almost like he's feeling his way around them with his pencil. The whole thing feels so alive, like you could just step right into that landscape. It makes me wonder what he was thinking about when he made it. Was he trying to capture a specific place, or was he just letting his imagination run wild? It reminds me of the way Turner paints his landscapes, full of light and atmosphere. Artists are always building on what came before, aren't they?