Rembrandt van Rijn

Whereas Dürer obsessively fills the sheet with line, Rembrandt's drawing is distinguished by his economy and his use of the white of the paper. Rembrandt built the structure of the picture with condensed areas of mark-making, leaving most of the sheet empty to convey the light and atmosphere of the landscape. His line feels quick, sure, and free. In the bottom center, Rembrandt's dark, broad, and bold strokes suggest the foliage at the edge of the canal and carry the viewer's eye into the picture and over the bridge. At the right edge of the picture, dry vertical pen strokes of varying width define the rugged embankment. The shape of the figure at the center repeats throughout the image -- in the door of the house, in the cluster of trees, in the figures at the horizon line -- to keep the viewer moving through the landscape, as do the figures populating the scene.