Kalenderbladen van juli, oktober en september, met korenschoven, zwanen en konijnen 1901

This calendar by Theo van Hoytema, now at the Rijksmuseum, is rendered in gentle browns and creams. Just imagine the artist carefully carving the images and numbers. It’s a study in the subtlety of mark-making. The whole thing has a faded, dreamy quality, like an old memory. I can almost feel the artist’s hand moving deliberately, balancing precision with the natural flow of the images he's depicting. What was he thinking, making a functional object beautiful? Look at the dark panel on the right. Notice how the animals emerge from the dark ground, and the odd shapes of the dates at the bottom. The texture reminds me of woodcuts by German Expressionists. The simple scenes and muted palette invite us to slow down, to observe the quiet beauty of nature, and the passage of time. And that's what art can do, isn't it? Remind us to see.