Autumn Ploughing 1919

Edvard Munch made this painting, Autumn Ploughing, with oil paints on canvas. It’s full of thick brushstrokes and earthy colors: browns, greens, and muted blues. I can just picture Munch in front of his easel, wrestling with the image, pushing and pulling the paint around to capture the movement of the horses and the turning of the soil. What’s cool is that each stroke feels so deliberate, yet the overall effect is raw and immediate, like he’s trying to nail down a fleeting feeling, as if he’s thinking about mortality, animals, the hard labor and connection to the earth. I like how he uses the paint to create a sense of depth and texture, you can almost feel the weight of the horses and the dampness of the earth. In his own way, Munch adds to a long history of landscape painters, and reminds us that painting is about feeling, not just seeing.