Young Man In Black, Girl In White 1919

Nils Dardel made “Young Man In Black, Girl In White” using paint, probably oil or tempera on canvas, who knows? I can almost feel Dardel layering thin washes of colour, one over the other, to build up this eerie scene. The emotional tension is palpable, right? That pale, almost sickly light and the way the figures stand so stiffly beneath the tree. It makes me think about Dardel's own life, his struggles with identity and relationships, as if this painting is a coded expression of his inner world. I keep thinking about the way the black suit sort of flattens the figure of the young man. And how that might relate to his own feelings of being trapped or confined? The way artists build on each other's ideas and techniques is fascinating, how they’re in constant dialogue across time. Dardel might have seen something in a Matisse painting, a certain colour combination, and then transformed it into something entirely his own. It’s like a game of telephone, where the message changes but the connection remains.