The Quiet Observation of the Polder Gerard Altmann spent his life looking closely at the low-lying landscapes of the Netherlands. Born in Rotterdam, he developed a way of seeing the world that favored the steady, unhurried rhythms of the countryside. His hands were rarely still, moving between the heavy application of oil on canvas and the delicate, precise lines of an etching or a lithograph. He was a man of many mediums, finding a w…