Mr. Lobkowitz in Roudnice 1993

Maria Bozoky made this watercolour, Mr Lobkowitz in Roudnice, probably sometime in the mid-20th century. It's got this beautiful, loose quality, the kind of drawing that feels like it's thinking out loud, right there on the page. Look how she layers thin washes of colour, especially in the building and the sky – blues and earth tones bleeding into each other. Then there’s these scribbly lines all over, like she’s searching for the right contour, a bit like Cezanne. There’s a real tenderness in the way she renders the scene. I keep coming back to that figure in the foreground, the one with the hat. It’s just a few strokes, but it’s so full of life, so present. It reminds me a little of Bonnard, that same sense of capturing a fleeting moment, a personal experience. These are not static pictures, they show us art as an ongoing exchange of ideas across time. It's like art is never really finished, it's always in conversation.