Landscape with a Well 1908 - 1912

Jacek Malczewski made this little oil painting, Landscape with a Well, probably sometime in the early 20th century. Look at the way the paint's applied! It's all about short, choppy strokes, like he’s building up the scene piece by piece. There's a real sense of layering here. The colors are muted, mostly browns and grays, but there are these surprising pops of green. I’m looking at the well itself, right in the foreground. It’s this chunky, circular form, and Malczewski uses these thick, almost sculptural dabs of paint to give it weight. The way he captures the light hitting the surface of the well is really beautiful. And then, behind it, you have this jumble of buildings and trees, all rendered in a similarly loose, impressionistic style. Malczewski was a Polish painter, a Symbolist, really interested in history, mythology, and folklore. And, while this isn't a mythological scene, the way he's approached it makes me think of other artists, like Corot or Courbet, who are interested in capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere in the world. What I like about this piece is how he manages to convey a sense of place with so few details, leaving the viewer to fill in the gaps.