1700
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
The Large Tree is a 1700 ink by Jan Both, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This black-and-white print shows a single, gnarled tree standing alone in the center of a flat landscape. The tree’s twisted branches spread wide, its roots digging deep into the ground. In the background, a faint horizon line hints at distant hills, but the focus stays on the tree’s tangled shape. Notice how the artist used fine lines to show texture—every leaf and bark detail is drawn by hand. This kind of precision was tricky before photography. Next, look up etching to see how artists like this made prints with acid and needles.
Jan Dirksz Both was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher, who made an important contribution to the development of Dutch Italianate landscape painting.
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