Harbor View at Sunset 1919

Konstantin Gorbatov’s “Harbor View at Sunset” is an oil painting, and you can tell it was made with a lot of feeling. There are these little dashes of color, like he’s building the scene out of mosaic tiles. I love how the light sort of bounces off everything, it’s like the whole painting is breathing. You can almost feel the cold in the snow but then there’s this warmth in the sunset reflecting on the water. Take a look at the buildings, especially how Gorbatov used thick strokes of paint to catch the light on the domes. It’s like he’s not just painting a scene, he’s capturing a moment, a feeling. I see some influences from Impressionism, but also a bit of something uniquely Russian, perhaps like Isaac Levitan. It feels like a personal memory, or a dream. And really, isn’t that what art is all about?