Sunset Over the Bay of Naples 1901

This is Tivadar Kosztka Csontvary’s “Sunset Over the Bay of Naples”, and who knows when it was made, but it's likely he used oils. Look at that sunset! The colours are really doing their thing, bleeding into each other, but it’s also somehow heavy, like the colours are weights, or emotions perhaps. Csontvary lays down a pretty thick, almost furry texture. You can see the individual strokes, especially in the trees. It makes you want to reach out and feel it. The palette is mostly in the reddish-browns, but they blend into oranges and yellows as they reach the horizon. It’s almost like you’re feeling a feverish dream, a sort of visual poem. Check out the way the brushstrokes move from left to right. They're kind of choppy, but they give the whole painting this great energy. It reminds me a bit of Munch, actually, with that sense of slightly unhinged beauty. It’s a conversation, one painter speaking to another across time. Anyway, that’s what art is, right?