David and Goliat 1916

Nils Dardel made this painting, David and Goliath, with what looks like watercolour or gouache, and it’s all about colour and line doing their thing. There’s something about the pastel tones, soft greens and blues, that completely throws you off when you realize what's actually going on here. I mean, it's brutal. The red paint is thick, almost crusty, making the violence feel disturbingly real, whilst the childlike rendering makes the whole scene strange. Look at the expression on David’s face, he looks like he’s posing in front of a stage set. Dardel seems to be channeling something primal through a very sophisticated lens. I see echoes of Munch’s raw emotionality mixed with something reminiscent of Rousseau’s naive figuration, like he’s placing the everyday next to the extraordinary. It all feels open, unresolved.