Early Evening 1932 - 1933

Mikuláš Galanda made this painting, Early Evening, using oil paint in an unknown year. It's kind of great, right? The subdued, harmonious color palette is immediately striking, almost like a nocturne. Galanda seems to be less interested in capturing nature as it is, and more interested in evoking the sensation of twilight. Look at the way he renders the mountain range; the peaks are simplified into these broad, gentle shapes, which really emphasizes the flatness of the picture plane. The paint application is fairly uniform throughout, which makes me think he may have used a palette knife. The texture is smooth, but the colors are layered so that, up close, you can see the subtle variations of tone and hue. It's like he's thinking about Cezanne and Slovakian folk art all at once! The landscape feels symbolic and distilled, far beyond just a literal representation. It reminds me of some of Milton Avery’s simplified landscapes, but with a Central European twist.