The Haymaker 1916

Edvard Munch painted “The Haymaker” with oil on canvas, and you can almost feel the physicality of it. I imagine Munch layering strokes, scraping back, building up textures that mimic the rough feel of the hay, the worker's worn gloves, the shifting skies. Look at those expressive marks. The colors are singing – yellows, greens, purples, all bumping up against each other. It’s like Munch wasn’t just painting what he saw, but how he felt, the heat, the labor, the sheer weight of the day. There’s a conversation happening between him and Van Gogh, maybe, or even artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker, all grappling with how to make paint carry emotion. Each gesture feels loaded, like he’s wrestling with something bigger than just a scene. It's this feeling of something unresolved and raw that keeps me coming back.