Harbor View at Sunset 1919

Konstantin Gorbatov's Harbor View at Sunset is rendered with a flurry of impasto marks and a range of ochre, blues, and creams. Can you imagine him standing at the dock, looking across the water towards this view, daubing and dabbing paint onto the canvas? I wonder if the creamy surface of the paint was the result of him mixing his paints on the canvas itself, swirling different colors together to get the right tone, like mixing frosting for a cake! Look at the way the paint is applied with such freedom, especially in the sky and water! The soft hues create a sense of tranquility, the sun beginning to set, the working day over. The buildings and boats are solid yet ephemeral, their reflections broken up by the movement of the water. The high horizon line also reminds me of some of the landscapes of the Dutch Masters, artists who were also looking to find a new way to depict the world around them. Painting, after all, is a conversation across time, each artist speaking to another.