King's Chapel, Boston 1923

George Luks made this painting of King’s Chapel in Boston using oil on canvas. He seems to be going for it, not holding back, you can see the marks he's making. The texture’s got a real roughness, and the colours aren’t shy; it’s like Luks wanted you to feel the grit of the city. There’s this one dark stroke defining the pillars – you can see how he loaded up the brush and just went for it. It’s this kind of gutsy, almost reckless mark-making that makes the painting feel so alive. Luks reminds me of someone like Gustave Courbet, who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Like Courbet, Luks wasn’t trying to pretty things up; he was showing you the real world, messy and imperfect, and finding the beauty in that.