Fairy tale 1904

Martiros Sarian made 'Fairy Tale' with watercolor, and you can really see the liquidy washes, almost as if he poured the colors onto the page, letting them mingle and find their own boundaries. It’s that sense of openness, of not quite controlling the outcome, that gives the painting its dreamy quality. There's a fascinating tension between the solidity of the landscape and the way the paint seems to float on the surface. Take a look at the way the trees are formed - they're not outlined or carefully shaded, but instead, they emerge from a series of translucent layers, like memories surfacing. The figure with the deer adds a touch of narrative, but it's the overall atmosphere of the painting that really captivates. You can almost feel Sarian’s connection to artists like Emil Nolde, who also weren't afraid to let the watercolor medium do its thing. It shows how artists are always in conversation, riffing on each other's ideas and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.