A Love Song, a Love Song, from Twelfth Night 1987

Edwin Austin Abbey made this watercolour, called A Love Song, a Love Song, from Twelfth Night, capturing a moment from Shakespeare’s play. The light washes of blues and browns and greens create a scene that feels both dreamy and immediate, like a memory. Look at how the colour seeps and bleeds, creating soft edges, and how the drawing in ink feels so free, almost scribbled, letting the colours do the work of defining the space. See how the figures are just suggested, they emerge and recede from the blue-grey wash behind? I love the way the blossom is rendered in these tiny flicks of rose pink, like stars against the dusk. Artists like Bonnard, and Whistler had this kind of lightness of touch, a method of alluding to a scene more than describing it. It's like the art is there to evoke an emotion, a feeling, and less to illustrate a story. It's not about what you see, but how it makes you feel.