Women in the countryside 1931

August Babberger’s “Women in the Countryside” is an exercise in building an image slowly; it’s almost like the painting has emerged from a fog. The greens and yellows dominate, but it's the faces that grab you, with their cool detachment. I wonder what Babberger was thinking, layering these figures into the landscape like this? Did he want to show us how humans are part of the natural world? I can imagine him stepping back, squinting, adding a touch of blue here, a dab of yellow there, letting the painting breathe and evolve. It reminds me of Léger, but with a softer edge. Painters are always in conversation, you know, across time and space. Each brushstroke is a thought, a feeling, a response to what came before. And it all comes together, layer upon layer, until the painting tells its story.