Segovia, Spain 1906

Robert Henri captured Segovia, Spain with oil on canvas, and you can just feel the sun on your face, right? Look at those energetic strokes and that harmonious palette of pinks, blues, and greens. I imagine Henri standing before this landscape, working quickly, trying to catch the light as it shifted across the mountains. He's building up the forms with these direct marks, not fussing too much with detail, but really trying to capture the feeling of the place. Look at the way the blues in the mountains recede into the distance, and how the greens in the foreground bring it forward. That's a move that goes all the way back to Impressionism, but Henri gives it this uniquely American, muscular energy. The way the colors play off each other, and the way the brushstrokes create texture... You can almost feel him wrestling with the canvas, trying to get it just right. It reminds me of what Fairfield Porter was up to—that search for a kind of casual beauty. Artists are always in conversation, you know? They're just trying to figure out how to see, and how to share what they see with the world.