Roskilde Domkirke 1938

Karl Schou made this painting of Roskilde Cathedral with oil on canvas, but when? The way Schou builds up the image with layers of grey tones is something that really draws me in. It’s like watching a scene emerge slowly from a mist, a testament to the unpredictable nature of painting itself. Up close, the surface is a map of brushstrokes, some dragging across, others jabbing straight into the canvas. The paint is neither thick nor thin, but just right, allowing a certain light to bounce off the canvas. Take a look at the bare tree that dominates the foreground, it almost looks like a lightning strike has been caught mid-air, frozen on the canvas. It reminds me a little of Whistler’s ‘Nocturne’ paintings, where the subject is secondary to the mood, and the painting becomes a vessel for exploring fleeting moments in time. Art is always a conversation, right? No fixed meanings, just different ways of seeing.