A Song of Springtime 1913

John William Waterhouse made "A Song of Springtime" with oil on canvas, sometime around the turn of the century. Just look at how he's built up that paint! There’s this tension between smoothness and impasto, where the forms kind of emerge from the surface. You can almost feel the wetness of the paint. Check out the woman’s dress, it’s like the whole painting is made of tiny soft brushstrokes, laid over one another, not blended, but kind of flickering in the light. The children are rendered with almost classical smoothness, and yet, that tree is thick and chunky. For me, it’s all about how the colors are muted, and yet luminous. Like a memory, or a dream. There is something of Puvis de Chavannes here, in the quiet, timeless scene, though Waterhouse definitely brings a more sensual, Pre-Raphaelite vibe to it all. Art is like a game of telephone, isn’t it?