Landschap 1854 - 1914

Curator: Here we have Albert Neuhuys’s "Landschap," a pencil drawing dating somewhere between 1854 and 1914, residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It's… intriguing. Rather melancholic, almost like a memory fading. The composition feels off-kilter, with the mass of the trees pulling the eye left. Curator: Precisely! Consider the mark-making—short, sharp strokes create texture but lack definite form. Neuhuys likely aimed not for exact representation, but rather a distilled impression of nature. The materiality is simple: graphite on paper, lending itself well to this style. Editor: And yet, within that simplicity lies a reflection of the changing role of the landscape artist. Increasingly, nature becomes an individual emotional experience, a stage for human drama, not just an objective record. It reminds me of contemporary anxieties concerning urbanization and industrialisation. Curator: You make a good point! And perhaps this rough handling even serves as a critique of academic landscape painting of his time. It seems unfinished, incomplete. I read that incompleteness as the expression. Editor: That tracks for me, the values aren’t precise but it’s not necessarily bad that some strokes bleed past the supposed subject. And considering that much of Neuhuys’ work chronicled everyday peasant life, this is very much… not that. There's something romantic in the traditional, almost sublime, feeling. Curator: Sublime is right, considering the scale and technique used here it becomes difficult to assess with just an aesthetic glance; his choice of tools and process is what informs the true nature of this "Landschap." It's the formal tension and relationship of marks that elevate it to expression, which might be the artist intention here. Editor: Very insightful! Viewing "Landschap" has made me rethink the way a landscape is received and perceived, it is far from just scenery.