Knotty Old Tree in the Dunes with a Fence
(5000-2102)

This drawing depicts a swampy, overgrown dune with gnarled oak tree that dominates the entire sheet. Surrounding the base of the oak is a broken fence and thick bramble that creeps across the immediate foreground. Drawn in dark brown ink with a lightness and dryness of touch that is perfectly fitted to the teeming spikiness of the bramble and the oak's foliage, Knotty Old Tree in the Dunes with a Fence features a claustrophobically dense vegetation. The tree's majestic presence is enhanced by the soaring birds, who are dwarfed by its monumental scale.

Pen and brown ink on paper (about 1650-1670)

by Claes van Beresteyn (Dutch, 1629-1684)