Souvenir 1921

Albert Bloch, born in 1882, made this painting, Souvenir, with oil on canvas, using a murky palette of browns, greys, blacks, and oranges. I imagine him dabbing and stippling the paint, layering the forms, and creating a thick, textured surface. Look at the way the figures are rendered! There is a crowd on the bottom left. What are they looking at? Bloch paints them as individuals but also as a mass. Then, towards the right, a horse and carriage with a suited gentleman. It's like he’s painted a stage. I bet Bloch saw himself as a kind of ringmaster, pulling together all of these characters. His work reminds me of Ensor, another artist interested in crowds and satire. I can imagine both of them exchanging notes on ways to create a sense of the grotesque. Anyway, painters are always in conversation with each other, riffing off ideas. Ultimately, painting is an act of empathy, of trying to connect with the human condition.