Landscape with Ruin 1900 - 1902

Karel Vitezslav Masek made this landscape with watercolor paint, probably outside, en plein air, as the French say, sometime between 1865 and 1927. You can see the quick, delicate brushstrokes of the green and brown washes, like the artist was trying to capture the feeling of the scene more than the exact details. I can almost feel the sun on my face and the breeze rustling through the leaves, can you? I wonder what Masek was thinking as he stood there painting. Was he thinking about the history of the ruin, imagining the people who once lived there? Or was he more interested in the way the light hit the stones, the way the colors shifted and changed as the day went on? The way he’s built up the layers of translucent color reminds me of some of the early landscape painters. You get the sense that artists are always in conversation with each other, picking up on ideas and techniques from the past and then adding their own little twist. Painting isn't just about what we see, but how we feel and remember.