Naturstudie V 1924

Karl Wiener made this watercolor landscape, Naturstudie V, at some point in the first half of the twentieth century, probably en plein air, letting the colours bleed into one another. You can feel how immediate it was, a quick impression, a feeling caught on paper. The whole thing shimmers and breathes through the wash of diluted colours. It’s mostly blues and greens and purples, all very muted, like a memory or a dream. Look at the way the sky is rendered; the brushstrokes are loose and wet, merging the clouds with the blue. Then your eye moves to the horizon, and the darker, more grounded tones of the landscape offer a sense of stability. This piece reminds me of the work of someone like Emil Nolde, who also used watercolor to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. Both artists were interested in expressing a kind of raw, emotional response to the natural world. But where Nolde is expressionistic, Wiener is a little more subdued, a little more quiet. It's like he’s inviting you to step into his world, a world seen through the lens of personal experience.