Spring 1909

Janos Mattis-Teutsch made this painting, "Spring," with bold strokes of colour, mostly blues, greens, yellows and pinks. I can imagine him working on it, layering the paint, responding to the colours. It feels like a landscape, but not really. More like a feeling of landscape. Look at that big, looping gesture that dominates the canvas – is it a river? A path? Or a tree? It's all of those things at once, I think. What was he thinking when he made it? I wonder if Mattis-Teutsch was trying to capture the way spring feels—that sense of everything bursting forth, colours suddenly appearing, the world coming alive again. There’s an energy here, a real sense of play. And it reminds me that painting is a conversation, not just with the world, but with other painters too, across time, each of us building on what came before. I love how this painting leaves so much open, inviting us to bring our own experiences, our own feelings, to the canvas.