Rain Landscape 1911

Wassily Kandinsky made this watercolor "Rain Landscape," using a variety of soft and pale colours. It's like looking at the world through a rain-streaked window, isn’t it? I can imagine Kandinsky, leaning over the paper, letting the watercolour pool and bleed, coaxing the image into being. See how he's put those diagonal marks over that large, shadowy shape? They’re so tentative but sure, like the feeling of rain. Looking at this, I'm reminded of other painters who were interested in synesthesia – the way that one sense can trigger another. Kandinsky was interested in the relationship between sound and colour, so maybe this painting is his attempt to visualize the feeling of a rainy day. It makes me wonder what it was like to be Kandinsky, listening to the rain and trying to translate it into something we can see. It’s a conversation, a back and forth between artists across time.