Zicht Aan de Augustijnenbrug te Brugge 1907

Constant Permeke made this painting of the Augustijnenbrug in Bruges with visible brushstrokes and a palette that's all greys, yellows, and greens. I imagine him standing there, squinting in the sunlight, trying to capture the weight of the stone and the shimmer of the water. The paint is laid on thick, like he's building the bridge right there on the canvas. You can almost feel the grit of the stone, the cool dampness of the canal. I bet Permeke was thinking about the way light changes everything, how it can make something solid seem almost to dissolve. It reminds me of Courbet, how he used paint to wrestle with the real world. That little dab of white in the water? It’s like a tiny explosion of light, totally transforming the scene. Painters are always chatting to each other, across time, across cultures, and Permeke is saying something here about the enduring, yet fleeting nature of beauty.