Kvinder hakker lyng 1906

Jens Vige made this painting of women in a field, we don't know when, using muted tones and broad strokes. I imagine him standing there, trying to capture the vastness of the landscape and the figures working in it. There’s a kind of quietness to the painting; the colors are earthy, almost like they've been mixed with the soil itself. Look at the way he’s built up the surface, thick in some places, thin in others, giving the whole thing a real sense of texture. I’m drawn to how the brushstrokes define the figures but also blend them into the landscape, as though they’re part of the environment. The way Vige handled the paint reminds me of other artists, like Courbet perhaps, who weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, to really dig into the materiality of painting. It makes you think about the history of art and how artists keep building on what came before, each one bringing their own sensibility to the conversation.