Haystacks and Trees

André-Dunoyer de Segonzac

unknown · Pen and ink on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

While his canvases are often heavily painted in dark colors, Segonzac’s drawings, as in this example, evince a quality of light, spontaneity, and elegance. This rural scene is rendered in the most minimal of lines: short staccato daubs to stand in for leaves and blades of grass, and longer lines for horizon, a tapered tree trunk, and bales of hay. There is more unmarked sheet than ink. Segonzac skillfully used the pen nib—pressing harder to widen the ink line and suggest shadow and volume, and pulling back to produce a more brittle line that conveys both light and distance—to convey this scene.

Artist

André-Dunoyer de Segonzac

Date

unknown

Medium

Pen and ink on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian, 2020