Peasant with a Rake 1937

Sasza Blonder made this painting, Peasant with a Rake, with what looks like quick strokes of oil paint, probably alla prima, capturing a fleeting moment. The colours are muted, but there's a lively energy to the way the brush moves across the canvas, making visible the decisions and gestures. Look at the texture, the way the paint sits on the surface. You can almost feel the bristles of the brush as it drags across the canvas. In the foreground, notice the marks suggesting a fence – they're not precise, but they convey the idea of a barrier, a boundary. Then there's the peasant himself, a tiny figure in the landscape, rendered with just a few strokes of paint, but full of presence. Blonder reminds me a bit of Chaïm Soutine, the way they both use expressive brushwork and distorted forms to convey emotion. But where Soutine is often turbulent and anguished, Blonder is more subdued, more reflective. The painting is about the land, and the life lived on it, but it is also a document of the artist's engagement with the act of painting itself.