Landschap met palmen 1886 - 1947

This small landscape with palms was made with watercolour by Pierre Jean Apol at an unknown date. Watercolour can be really unforgiving because it’s so transparent, every mark counts and there’s little room to hide. I feel like Apol knew how to make every drop and dribble count, there’s a freshness here. Look at how the browns and blues at the bottom edge bleed into each other, it’s like he was letting the paint do its thing! There’s something so satisfying about that kind of surrender. It speaks to me of Apoll’s trust in the materials, and the possibilities of the process. Then there's the foliage in the background, like rapid calligraphic gestures, conjuring a sense of depth and density with minimal effort. This piece reminds me of the watercolours of Emil Nolde, who also knew how to capture a mood with simple washes of colour. In art, there aren’t any fixed meanings, just different ways of seeing and feeling.