Landscape in Arges Valley 1932

Henri Catargi made this landscape in Arges Valley using delicate washes of watercolor. There's a sensitivity to the light, to the colors, and to the subtle shifts in tone. I can imagine him there, in that field, trying to capture something so fleeting, like a breeze. The way he's layered the washes, you can almost feel the dampness in the air. You know, painting outside like this is a real challenge, but it also forces you to be direct and trust your instincts. I see this figure walking away from us. Maybe it’s the artist himself. Or maybe it’s someone he imagined into the scene? Catargi probably knew the work of other landscape painters and those artists who worked en plein air. There is a real conversation happening with his painting, this back and forth across time, that makes it special. It's like he's saying, "I was here, I saw this, and I felt this," and now we get to feel it too.