Rider by Seashore 1937

This painting of a 'Rider by Seashore' by Cyprián Majerník has these bold brushstrokes and a simple palette of blues, reds, and white, and you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas. It feels like the picture has come into being through improvisation. Imagine Majerník standing before the canvas, wrestling with the image, layering the paint, and maybe wiping it away. The paint is laid on quite thickly, especially when you see the muscularity of the horse, and the way it’s been built up. The way the horse rears up, almost floating against the horizon, it has this wild energy, and the rider seems to barely hold on. I wonder if Majerník was thinking of other riders, like the ones Delacroix painted? Or maybe he was thinking of something entirely different. Ultimately, painting is a conversation across time, and each artist picks up where another leaves off, dreaming up new ways of seeing.