Bäume vor dem Haus 1904

Adolf Hölzel made this painting of trees in front of a house, and it’s all about texture and touch. The dabs of greens and browns must have been put down with so much care, you can almost feel the bristles of the brush. I can imagine Hölzel outdoors, squinting in the sunlight, trying to capture the way the light filters through the leaves. The house itself is secondary, almost swallowed up by the foliage. That one stroke of pale green, right in the middle of the bush – it's like a tiny explosion of light, maybe reflecting a sunlit leaf. This is the kind of painterly moment that makes you think about the artist’s process. How did Hölzel decide to put that dab of paint there? It’s a conversation between hand, eye, and memory. Artists continue to look at nature, like Hölzel, and learn from it.