Landschap met een gebouw 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this landscape with what looks like charcoal, maybe some pastel? I wonder what it was like for him, standing there, looking out at the building in the distance, the trees, the clouds and sky. Did he want to capture what was in front of him, or something else? Look at those marks – scratchy, layered, unsure yet resolved. The way the dark charcoal of the trees reflects in the pale ground reminds me of Rorschach tests, where what you see says as much about you as the inkblot itself. I bet De Jonge wasn’t trying to make a perfect picture. Instead, he wanted to catch a feeling, a mood, or maybe just an idea. That push-and-pull between seeing and feeling connects him to other artists across time, all in a constant conversation, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.