Heuvelachtig landschap c. 1901 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge captured this hilly landscape with pencil, and you can almost feel the scratch of graphite on paper. I imagine de Jonge outside with his sketchbook, quickly trying to capture the scene before the light changes. You know, that constant battle against time and shifting conditions. Look closely at the rhythmic, almost meditative hatching in the foreground, versus the looser, more chaotic strokes suggesting foliage and distant hills. As a painter, I'm always thinking about how marks make space. How can a few lines conjure a whole world? De Jonge is in conversation with artists like Cezanne, or even Van Gogh, who used line and mark-making to build structure and convey emotion. And as viewers, we're invited into that conversation, completing the picture with our own associations. It's a beautiful exchange across time, and through this simple sketch we are asked to consider the very act of seeing.