Honfleur 1865

Editor: Here we have Johan Barthold Jongkind’s “Honfleur,” an oil-on-canvas painting from 1865. It feels like a misty morning, very tranquil and subdued, and the reflections on the water are really captivating. What draws your eye when you look at this piece? Curator: Well, my dear, you’ve already touched on what enthralls me – that shimmering, almost dreamlike quality of the water. Jongkind’s brushstrokes are so loose, so suggestive. I find myself lost in the way the light catches the sails, how the town melts into the sky. Doesn’t it remind you of a fleeting memory, half-forgotten yet intensely felt? Editor: It does, actually! The way the details sort of dissolve makes it feel more about a feeling than a precise place. Was Jongkind part of the Impressionist movement then? Curator: He was, in a way, a father figure to the Impressionists. Think of Monet, especially. Jongkind paved the way for that focus on light and atmosphere, the "plein-air" approach. You know, rushing to capture that very ephemeral light. It is almost as if the paint, with all the strokes, are breathing life. It makes you feel the breath of the city, do you think? Editor: That’s a lovely image, yes, the breath of the city. I also see a kind of stillness, despite the energy in the brushwork. The boats seem peacefully docked, and that tiny figure in the boat barely moves the water. Curator: Exactly! A suspended moment. Do you see a narrative element hidden in there, between that city breath and still figures? Editor: I didn't think about it that way. Maybe it is more active, waiting in breathless anticipation, rather than it is still and restful. Thanks, that adds another dimension to this cityscape. Curator: Precisely! That's art, darling. We think; then rethink again!