Castle-Capital 1911

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin painted this piece called 'Castle-Capital' sometime in his life, using what looks like oil on canvas. There’s a real freedom in the way the marks are laid down here, a kind of joyous confidence. It feels like he’s not trying to capture reality so much as create a feeling of place. The paint is applied pretty thinly in most areas, allowing the surface of the canvas to breathe. You can almost feel the give and take between the artist and the material. Look at the way he’s used these broken strokes of color to suggest form and light. There’s a kind of shorthand at play here, a way of suggesting detail without getting bogged down in it. Take the red roofs for example, they’re not perfectly rendered, but they give you a sense of the place. It reminds me a little of some of the Impressionists, maybe someone like Monet, in its emphasis on capturing a fleeting moment, but with a decidedly Russian sensibility. Ultimately, it’s this ambiguity that makes the painting so compelling. It invites you to bring your own experiences and interpretations to the table.