Landscape near "Mindet" on Christiansø 1911

Karl Isakson made this landscape on Christiansø with oil on canvas, and it’s a beauty. Look at the greens, blues and browns that build up this place. I can just imagine Isakson, out there in the landscape, squinting and trying to capture the light. The paint is brushed on kind of thick, so you can really feel the texture. There’s this one stroke of green that makes up the foliage of a tree, it's kind of gestural, alive. It feels like a quick decision that came out just right. You see that mark and it's as if you are witness to the moment the artist had that feeling, that spark, that idea. Isakson’s work has this quiet intensity, a searching quality I really connect with, a little like Hammershoi or Bonnard. You can tell he's working something out, trying to get to the bottom of what it means to really see. That kind of curiosity, that’s what keeps artists talking to each other across time.