The iron foundry in Kitschelt Skodagasse in Vienna 1903

Rudolf von Alt made this watercolour painting of the iron foundry in Kitschelt Skodagasse, Vienna. The approach to mark making is tentative, provisional, with layers of transparent washes that leave the ghost of previous marks visible like a half-erased drawing. There's a real sense of the artist feeling their way around the subject. The colours are muted, earthy tones, mostly browns and greys, that reflect the industrial setting, but these are offset by fleeting glimpses of light in the windows of the buildings. Look at the way the artist renders the windows, each one subtly different, suggesting the life going on inside. The surface texture is smooth, as you would expect from watercolour, but it's been worked over many times. It reminds me of a Turner, or maybe even more of a Whistler Nocturne, artists who pushed the boundaries of what watercolour could do. I wonder what Alt would have made of artists like them, whether he considered himself part of a similar conversation.