Vraget 1906

'Vraget', or 'The Wrecked', was painted by Paul Fischer using oils on canvas. Look at the way the artist has laid down the paint, in thin washes and broken dabs of colour, and notice the ochre palette. You can almost feel the chill in the air, hear the waves crashing. I imagine him, Fischer, down on that beach, squinting through the gloom, trying to capture the precise hue of the sand, the grey of the sky. And then there’s the figure in the foreground, lying prone as though she’s been washed up on the shore, the 'wrecked' one of the title. How much is she part of the landscape, and how much a figure separated from it? The way Fischer has painted the hair, for example – is it seaweed, or is it hair? What does it mean for an artist to borrow from his surroundings? Artists are always stealing ideas, remixing and re-presenting images. It’s a constant conversation, a mishmash of influences that makes art so exciting, don't you think?