From Brooklyn Heights 1925

George Ault painted this scene, From Brooklyn Heights, with a palette that feels both industrial and strangely delicate. Look at the way Ault handles the paint. It's smooth, almost like he's airbrushing, but you know it's oil. Everything is flattened, simplified, almost like a stage set. The buildings in the background become geometric shapes, softened by the haze. Yet there's a real precision in how he renders the light. See how it hits the sides of the buildings, creating these subtle gradations? What's interesting is how Ault's urban landscapes share something with the starkness of Edward Hopper, but there's also this quiet poetry, a stillness. You might almost think of Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian surrealist, who similarly emptied his cityscapes of people and imbued them with a certain uncanny quality. Art's just a big conversation, right? We're all riffing off each other, trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.