Roskilde Domkirke 1938

Karl Schou made this painting of Roskilde Domkirke with oil on canvas. It’s a world of greys, silvers, blacks and whites – the cathedral looms in the background as if emerging from a dream. I can imagine Schou layering the paint, building up the image stroke by stroke. See how the bare branches reach up, almost scratching at the sky? It makes me wonder what the air felt like that day. Was it cold? Crisp? What kind of light was he trying to capture? There’s something so immediate about the painting. The way the brushstrokes capture the light on the building, or the rough texture of the rooftops – it's like a moment frozen in time. It reminds me of Corot, and other painters who were just trying to capture the world around them. They’re all in conversation with each other, you know? It's one painter seeing through the eyes of another. Painting is like that, a constant exchange of ideas and feelings. Each stroke, each color, a step into the unknown.