Gezicht onder een spoorviaduct te Amsterdam Possibly 1920 - 1930

This is Adolf le Comte’s, ‘Gezicht onder een spoorviaduct te Amsterdam,’ made in 1920 with watercolor, a medium I love for its fluidity. You can really see the hand of the artist at work. Look at the way the water is rendered. The gray and black marks are applied quickly. It’s like Le Comte is trying to capture a fleeting moment, a specific quality of light hitting the water, rather than a photographic likeness. I love that the support of the viaduct appears to be rendered with a similar speed, it’s blocky and gestural. The overall effect is almost abstract, anticipating some of the more radical approaches to landscape painting of artists such as Joan Mitchell. Like Mitchell, Le Comte is not merely representing a scene, but recording a personal encounter. It leaves space for ambiguity, and celebrates the act of seeing.