Edge of a Forest with Crosses 1918

Laszlo Mednyanszky painted this forest edge with crosses, we don’t know when exactly, using a palette of mostly greens and browns, with touches of white to suggest light filtering through the trees, and a looser touch than I am used to. Up close, you see the paint handling is pretty direct, not fussy at all. The brushstrokes are visible, and the layers of paint seem thin, not built up too much. The texture isn't about impasto, it’s more about the weave of the canvas showing through. What interests me is how the crosses are rendered with such simple strokes, yet they evoke a sense of solemnity. The crosses are a really interesting motif as they suggest a boundary between the natural world and something more spiritual or somber. Mednyanszky's work reminds me a bit of Corot, in the way he captures the mood of a landscape, and how both artists embrace this sense of atmospheric ambiguity.