Sketch Book for the Artist

PLANTS

AND

GARDENS

Fast Trees

IN CONTRAST TO THE QUIET, formal detail of other drawings

in this chapter, these powerful fast trees enact the actions

of plants. Each tree reaches out and holds its landscape with

dynamism and pulse. In both drawings we find testament

to the inexorable energy of growth.

Rembrandt expresses a delicate quickness. Gentle lines

draw a warm breeze through this remote wooded garden.

Rustling in a loose foliage of soft marks, his pen evokes the

weight of abundant activity on this late summer's day.

Mondrian's arch of scratching branches is drawn with

such force it will always be alive. We can still feel his hand

storming across the paper. Set within a frame of smudged

landscape, the tree possesses a musical agitation. This

characteristic will increase in the artist's later abstract

work. Here, we see a punctuated ordering of space. Sharp

branches cut out negative shapes of winter sky.

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN

Dutch painter; etcher; and draftsman. Rembrandt's prolific

output comprises oil paintings of historical and religious

subjects together with group and self- portraits. His

emotive etchings and pen and ink drawings (see also

p. 174) are great resources for artists learning to

understand the potential of these media.

Horizon Pen and ink lines describing foliage also tell

us the directions of sunlight and wind. An arc crossing the

bottom of the drawing from one side to the other supports

the scene and separates us from the landscape beyond.

Compare Rembrandt's arc to that of Mondrian's. and note

the similar treatment of low horizons in both works

emphasizing the height and dominance of trees.

Cottage Among Trees

1648-50

63 / 4 x 121 / 8 in (I7I x 308 mm)

REMBRANDTVAN RIJN