Gondola, Evening in Venice c. 1900 - 1920

Eugène Vail made "Gondola, Evening in Venice" on a piece of paper with charcoal. I imagine the artist standing on a bridge in Venice, squinting, trying to get the city's essence down with just a few smudges of charcoal. Look how the buildings almost dissolve into the night, their forms hazy and dreamlike. I like how the strokes on the surface of the water suggest movement, so you get a sense of Venice as a place of fluidity and reflection. The gondola glides through the darkness; you can almost feel the quiet hush of the evening. I can imagine Vail making lots of dark works like this, maybe he was trying to capture a mood? Or maybe he was just interested in the way light and shadow play off each other. Maybe Whistler's Nocturnes were in his mind when he made this, or maybe he'd never seen them. Artists are always talking to each other, whether they know it or not.