Christoph Rott, Ein Bauer 1910

Albin Egger-Lienz painted this character study, Ein Bauer, or A Farmer, with oil on canvas. The color palette is limited, almost monochromatic, with browns and creams doing all the work. It feels like an exercise in tone, how much you can get from so little. Look how Egger-Lienz has scrubbed and layered the paint. It’s all about the materiality; you can see his process. The farmer’s stance is strong, almost confrontational, but his gaze is averted, lost in thought. This contrast makes me wonder about the way the artist sees his subject. I see this tension played out in the man’s hands, the right one a clenched fist, the other resting tentatively on the book. The book and the farmer, a kind of forced relationship? Egger-Lienz reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another artist who sought to capture the lives of rural people with honesty. They’re both interested in ambiguity, less interested in telling a story than posing a question.