Loads with a crane barge on the Seine 1932

Alekos Kontopoulos painted this view of Loads with a crane barge on the Seine, likely en plein air, sometime in the earlier part of the 20th century. The artist seems to be working fast here, laying down layer upon layer of muted browns and reds, with just the occasional blue note hinting at the sky. Look at the quayside in the foreground: see how those strokes of layered pigment coalesce, becoming solid before your very eyes? There's a real sense of materiality here, the paint acting as a stand-in for the surface of the embankment. The way he's evoked the surface of the Seine is beautiful, all captured in short strokes, like the scene is reflected in broken glass. This piece reminds me of early paintings by Gustave Courbet, who also had a fascination for urban scenes and the movement of water. But whereas Courbet was more concerned with the weight and heft of the material world, Kontopoulos seems more interested in ephemerality, the fleeting nature of the here and now.