Dödens husarer 1919

Nils Dardel made this painting, Dödens husarer, with frantic brushstrokes and a palette of fiery reds, sickly greens and ghostly blues. You can almost imagine Dardel wrestling with the image, trying to capture some elusive feeling or idea as it shifted and changed. I think it’s fair to say that Nils was having some thoughts! I bet that the paint was applied quickly, intuitively, with thin layers building up to create a sense of urgency and unease. Check out the way the figures are rendered, all grotesque and distorted. The horses look as though they are running away from something terrible. That slashing gesture, the way Dardel applied the paint, communicates a real sense of panic, I can almost see it. I feel like Dödens husarer embodies a wider conversation in painting about confronting death and embracing the macabre and the absurd. And that’s one of the things I like best about paintings - they allow for so many ways of seeing, of feeling, of experiencing the world!