Huisje bij boomrand en vrouwen met visnetten 1872 - 1944

Frans Smissaert made this painting of a house near a tree line with women holding fishing nets with oil on canvas. The painting has a somber palette that focuses on dark greens, grays, and browns. I imagine Smissaert must have been outside, en plein air, probably squinting, trying to capture that very particular light on the horizon before the storm really hits. You can feel the wind in the way he painted those leaning trees! There's a real energy in the application of paint. The brushstrokes are loaded and confident, especially in the sky. You can really see him pushing the paint around, trying to capture the weight and movement of the clouds. I imagine this piece coming into being in layers, a series of intuitive responses to the landscape. Painters are constantly responding to the work of others, carrying on a visual conversation across time. This painter's engagement with the landscape, and with the embodied experience of being in a place, is a generous offering and reminds me of the kind of conversation that's worth having.