Amerongen 1888 - 1934

Willem Adrianus Grondhout created this landscape view of Amerongen as an etching. I wonder what it might have been like to stand where he stood. There is a sense of quiet industry in this print. Thin, scratchy, and somewhat repetitive lines build up the scene. It is as though the trees are made of tiny hairs. The sky is a clean slate, with a few wispy clouds floating far above. The whole landscape is caught in a network of marks. He must have worked from foreground to background, layering and hatching to create depth and form. I imagine him stopping, squinting, and then applying a few more lines with the needle. The eye is drawn to the buildings on the horizon, as the church tower stands slightly offset in the composition. I can't help but see how Grondhout's approach relates to other printmakers, like Whistler. Artists like these are in a silent conversation across time, each teaching the other new ways of seeing and feeling the world through the language of marks and materials.