Huis tussen bomen 1872 - 1939

Egbert Rubertus Derk Schaap made this drawing of a house between trees using what looks like graphite. You can almost feel the artist standing there, squinting in the Dutch sunlight. The drawing is not overworked, it's more like the residue of a looking process. I imagine Schaap thinking about tone, about what the values are, and the darks and lights of the landscape. The trees in the midground, made with urgent, repetitive marks, look like they might blow away any second. See how the horizontal marks of the grass resolve into dark lines? Schaap’s marks are so simple but so evocative. It reminds me of some of Guston's late landscapes, which are all about compressing feeling into a few gestures. Artists are always looking at each other, and Schaap is part of that conversation too. He leaves a space for us to feel whatever we feel.