Dordrecht 

Tina Blau painted Dordrecht using oil paint on a rectangular canvas. The loose brushwork gives a sense of movement, as though we’re catching a fleeting glimpse of this Dutch scene. The painting feels immediate, the material itself contributing to this impression of spontaneity. The artist worked wet-on-wet, blending the colors directly on the canvas in order to capture the light and atmosphere of the scene. In this painting, the material processes aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, but they speak to a wider social context of 19th-century art. With industrialization, artists had access to premixed paints in tubes, which allowed them to work outdoors and capture landscapes like Dordrecht in real time. This freedom allowed artists to break away from traditional studio painting and engage with the world around them in new and exciting ways. Looking at the materiality of paintings like Dordrecht allows us to question the traditional hierarchy between fine art and craft, recognizing the skill and labor involved in both.