27/5000 Krym. Piramidal'nyy Topol' Crimea. Lombardy poplar 1915

Robert Falk made this painting of a Lombardy poplar in the Crimea, and it feels like he’s building up the image from chunks of colour. There's something so present about the brushstrokes in this work, little jabs of greens and blues coming together to make a whole. Look at how the leaves aren't painted as individual shapes, but as a mass of textured colour; you can almost feel the energy of the artist building this tree into being. The trunk is an earthy, grounding presence, the brushstrokes suggesting a solidity and weight. It reminds me a little of Cézanne in its construction, how Falk uses colour and texture to build form. But there's also a unique sensibility here, a kind of quiet intensity. It embraces the ambiguity of representation, reminding us that painting isn't about perfect duplication, but about capturing a feeling, an essence, a way of seeing.