Denneboom

By 1909 Zandleven had given a tall, narrow canvas over to a single evergreen. Stand close and the tree dissolves into thousands of small, separate touches of paint, set dab against dab. He had absorbed Impressionism, but this stippled way of building a surface sits nearer to Pointillism. Trees would soon become his main subject: a few years after this he settled at Putten, on the edge of the Veluwe woods, and spent his days painting among them. This pine comes just before that turn. He was a devout man who worked slowly, and the patience shows in how much of the canvas is given to one quiet tree.