A landscape with a farm 1927

Constant Permeke's painting, "A Landscape with a Farm," is a small window into a moment, a feeling, laid down with humble paint. It is so simple! The artist's hand is all over it, figuring out what is what. Look at that dark sky pushing down on the house and trees, and those marshmallow clouds doing nothing to dispel the gloom. The house seems to huddle under its heavy roof and chimney, like it has hunkered down for a storm. I wonder if Permeke felt a kind of gloom when they made this, or if it was the opposite. Maybe they thought a simplified scene could make them feel better. There is something courageous in the way the painter has gone straight for the essence of the forms, smudging and blurring the details to create an image that is both raw and immediate. I feel like I'm right there with Permeke, squinting at the landscape, trying to capture its essence.