Weisshorn of Montana 1915

This painting, Weisshorn of Montana, was made by Ferdinand Hodler in 1915. Look at those dreamy blues and mauves! I'm thinking about Hodler standing there, trying to wrangle this landscape with horizontal strokes, stacking up space and atmosphere. It’s like he’s saying, "Okay, mountains there, water here, sky up top." There's something so earnest and direct about it, you know? The paint isn’t too thick, but it’s present. I imagine him squinting, trying to capture the way the light bounces off the water, how the mountains sit so solidly in the distance. And the clouds! Those fluffy, lavender-tinged clouds. He’s really going for it, trying to nail the ephemeral quality of the sky. It’s like he’s wrestling with the scene, trying to pin down something that’s always shifting. Painters have been trying to capture light and space forever, from Turner to Monet to now. It’s an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth across time. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.