Boer aan het werk op het land 1919

Gustave De Smet made this print, Boer aan het werk op het land, with stark black ink on paper, and the process feels central to the work. It’s all about these bold, graphic shapes bumping up against each other, creating a high-contrast scene of a farmer working the land. I love how the shapes lock together, almost like pieces of a puzzle, or maybe shards of glass. Look at the way the farmer’s body is rendered – a series of thick lines that suggest weight and movement. The texture is all in those lines, those gouges the artist made to carve out the image. You can almost feel the physical effort, the artist wrestling with the block. It’s not about illusion, it’s about the material, the ink, the paper, the act of making. This reminds me a little of some of the German Expressionist woodcuts, like those by Kirchner, where the rough, angular forms convey a sense of raw emotion. But De Smet brings his own sensibility, a kind of earthy directness. Art, like farming, is about getting your hands dirty, embracing the mess and the struggle.