View of a village against the background of a mountain 1907

Tadeusz Makowski painted this “View of a Village against the Background of a Mountain” with oil, and I'm guessing at speed given the way the marks have been laid down. Look at how Makowski used the paint, not to describe a scene, but to create a world. See that dark mountain looming above the village? It's not just a mountain, but a mass of energy, rendered with thick strokes of dark browns and blues. The texture is palpable, almost like you could reach out and feel the weight of the mountain. Then your eye travels down to the village, those little blocks of color hinting at homes and lives nestled against the landscape. Notice those streaks of russet that cut through the mountain suggesting pathways or geological layers. There's a dialogue here between the grand scale of nature and the intimacy of human habitation, a conversation that feels both urgent and timeless. I love the way Makowski nods to the kind of landscape painting that Cezanne was doing at the beginning of the 20th century, but brings it something entirely new. This is painting that invites you to wander and to wonder.