Site With Train Tracks and Houses 1916

Walter Gramatté made this painting of train tracks and houses, with oil on canvas. It’s all brushstrokes and impasto, like Van Gogh, but without the color punch. The image rises up and the horizon seems to tip forward. What was it like to be him, I wonder? I get the feeling he was an anxious guy. Did he feel melancholic? What kind of weather did he prefer? Maybe this painting IS his weather preference—this grayness, the way the world is muted. It’s also possible that the muted quality is all that he could afford, pigment-wise. I get the feeling it was more than that. Painting becomes a way of seeing, thinking and experiencing the world. And then the next painter comes along and has a different idea of what is worth thinking about. That’s the great thing, you know?