Castle-Capital 1911

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin made this painting, Castle-Capital, with what looks like quick strokes of oil paint, a real flurry of marks in blues, greens, and reds. You know, looking at this, I think about the sheer guts it takes to put brush to canvas. I imagine Korovin, mixing his colors, maybe a little nervous, but diving in, trying to capture a fleeting vision of a place that feels both real and dreamlike. The paint is applied so freely, it is almost as if he's wrestling with the image, trying to pin down something that keeps slipping away. The way he’s built up the forms with these dabs of color reminds me of Impressionist painters, like Monet. But there’s also something raw and unfinished about it, like he’s more interested in the feeling of the place than in getting all the details right. Painters are always chatting to each other across time, borrowing ideas and pushing them further. It's this endless conversation that makes art so alive, don't you think? And it’s great that a painting like this still invites us into the discussion.