Winter (V) 1907

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made this painting, Winter (V), with pastel and tempera, at some point in his short life. The surface has a dry, chalky feel. See how he builds up the forms with short, hatched strokes? It's like he's knitting the image together, one strand at a time. The colors are muted, almost bleached out, like sunlight on snow, but with an underlying warmth. Take a look at the candelabra on the right, it's a strange, skeletal shape, rendered with thin, dark lines. The flickering flames on top seem to push against the encroaching cold, as if the image is an attempt to ward off the darkness. Ciurlionis’s painting reminds me of Symbolist artists like Odilon Redon, who was similarly interested in exploring the inner landscape of dreams and emotions, and the limits of what painting can do. It’s like the painting knows it can never truly capture it.