Spišský hrad 1923

Ľudovít Čordák made this landscape with a castle at an unknown date. The painting feels like an exercise in observation, a desire to really see and feel the texture and color of nature and the built environment. I imagine Čordák standing there, squinting, trying to capture the way the light hits the stone. The paint is applied with a casual looseness, almost like he’s sketching with the brush. See how the green of the field is built up with layers of slightly different tones? And the sky, a mix of blues and greys, suggesting a breezy day. I wonder if he struggled with how to represent the castle. Did he want it to look imposing, solid? Or did he want it to blend in with the landscape, a part of the natural world? To me, it feels like he’s showing how human structures and the land kind of mirror each other.