Parisergata 1915

Nils Dardel made this watercolour, "Parisergata" in no particular year. It's all a blur of colour, like a memory, or a half-remembered dream. The violet and lilac confetti that makes up the foreground is the key, I think. It’s laid down so randomly, like a Jackson Pollock drip painting in miniature. But rather than being chaotic, these marks create a foundation of light and shade that suggests a sun-dappled street scene. The figures are sketched in loosely, a ragtag of flaneurs, dandies, and dogs. Some of the faces are left blank, others are defined with a few swift strokes. The overall effect is both whimsical and melancholic, a fleeting glimpse of a Parisian street scene caught in a rain shower, like a painting by Raoul Dufy. It shows how Dardel uses colour to evoke a sense of time and place. It’s not so much about what he’s painting, but how he’s painting it.