Moonlight c. 1905

Julian Alden Weir made this oil on canvas, Moonlight, at an unknown date. It's giving me the feeling that I get when I’m trying to remember a dream. The brushstrokes are soft, and blended, and the color palette is very limited, mostly blues, greens, and browns. It’s very muted. It is as though the artist were trying to capture a fleeting moment, or a half-formed memory. Look at the way Weir handled the paint in the lower half of the composition. The vertical marks could either be long grasses or reeds but are so indistinct they are just simply marks which evoke a feeling of the landscape. The overall effect is one of quiet contemplation and a sense of mystery, like a nocturne by Whistler. These artists were interested in the emotional and spiritual qualities of landscape, rather than its literal representation. It’s about capturing a mood, or a feeling, rather than a specific place.