Plains of Holland

Date

about 1910

Creator

Plains of Holland is one of a handful of landscapes that Demachy made after a journey to the Netherlands shortly before 1910. The work exemplifies his combination of photographic image and painterly hand work. A few of Demachy's Dutch photographs represent windmills as picturesque structures looming over flat fields. Here, two windmills rise over the landscape in static attention, their sails furled. The buildings occupy the lower-left diagonal half of this image, while at the upper right is open sky. Cattle graze beneath the windmills, each seeming to follow her own nose through lush grass. The fields recede, but seem to terminate below the horizon, which may represent dikes in the background, or even the distant sea. There are no sharp lines in the image, and the few hard edges are described by dark forms silhouetted against light. The soft modeling of form and space and the subtle tonal shifts resemble mezzotint. To sustain this effect, Demachy selected a laid paper of the kind that might have been used for an old master drawing or print, giving this gum bichromate print a gravitas that photographs of the time often lacked. To emphasize the effects of light and atmosphere, and to create mood, the artist altered the photographic negative. Deep shadows below a luminous sky give this image a sense of muted peace. This is an image of rural serenity, in which life goes on in tune with nature, much as it has for centuries. from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)