Ancient Garden 1913

Lajos Gulacsy made this painting of a garden with layers of translucent washes, somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. The colors are muted, like browns bleeding into greens, creating a sense of depth. I can imagine Gulacsy layering each stroke, letting the paint do its own thing, coaxing it along. It's a tricky balance, right? How much to control, how much to let go. I feel like this piece embodies that negotiation. He must have thought a lot about how light and shadow interplay in a garden. The figure in the foreground seems almost like an afterthought, a dab of red amidst the foliage. Maybe he was thinking of others like Monet, and how they captured light? Or maybe he wanted to tap into something more dreamlike, like the Symbolists, but I can't be sure. As painters, we're all in this ongoing conversation, riffing off each other, trying to make something new out of the old. I like the ambiguity here, it feels honest. What do you see?