Landscape 1917

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin made this landscape with oil paints, and look at how freely he's thrown them around! The brushwork here is loose and kind of juicy. The paint isn’t too thick, but it's definitely there, creating a tangible surface. You can almost feel the texture of the grass and the roughness of the wooden boat. I love the way he’s captured the reflection of the trees in the water with these quick, broken strokes of green and brown. Check out how he renders the figure in the boat. Just a few strokes of red and black, but it totally reads as a person poling along. It’s like he’s saying, "I don't need to spell everything out for you; you can fill in the blanks." Which reminds me of Manet, another painter who wasn’t afraid to leave things unfinished, inviting the viewer to participate in the act of seeing.