Landscape with trees 1924

Konstantin Bogaevsky made this painting, Landscape with Trees, with oil paint, sometime around forever ago! It's all about the mood, right? The colors are subdued, almost like they're remembering a brighter time. Look at the way he builds up the leaves of the trees with these short strokes, kind of scrubbing the paint on. It's like he's trying to capture the essence of the landscape rather than a photographic depiction. The textures are what get me going here. The rough, almost scratchy feel of the paint gives the whole scene a kind of dreamlike quality. It's not smooth or polished, but raw and immediate. See that dark stroke running from the base of the mountains? It creates this great tension, like a held breath. You see this kind of mark-making repeated throughout his oeuvre. It makes me think of Ryder, or maybe even some of the Symbolists, trying to conjure up a feeling more than a place. It’s a reminder that painting is always a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling that gets passed down and transformed over time.