The Balcony 1904

Frederick Carl Frieseke made this painting, The Balcony, with oil on canvas, though it is difficult to know exactly when. Looking at the mark making, you can see how the dappled brush strokes work together to create the form, and the painting process is very present. There is a real material sense of the paint and how it is applied, not too thickly, but not at all thinned down either, just straight from the tube, one colour sitting next to the other. The top right corner of the canvas, with the purple sky and almost circular moon, is particularly beautiful. The texture of the canvas remains visible, and the paint surface catches the light in such a way as to suggest a real sense of that early evening twilight. Frieseke had lived in Paris for many years, and it is no surprise that his paintings share some of the aesthetic qualities of his impressionist predecessors. But like any conversation, Frieseke has his own tone and his own, unique way of thinking.