Harbor Entrance at Marseille c. 1920

Otto Lange made this watercolor painting of the Harbor Entrance at Marseille with expressive lines and an evocative color palette. The blue bleeds into the paper, creating depth, like water filling up a space. You can tell Otto cared about color relationships and the act of painting itself, using the fluidity of the medium to suggest movement and depth in the harbor. The city is built with the kind of frantic, raw urgency you find in the paintings of Kirchner, Beckmann, and the other German Expressionists. Look at the black lines of the harbor bridge and the architectural details of the buildings! As a painter, I feel the artist's hand in the work, the way Otto Lange built up the painting, layer by layer, with the knowledge that a painting is never truly finished but always evolving. Just like an artist, the port is always in motion, always changing.