Farmer From Ins At Table 1908

Albrecht Anker made this watercolor painting, Farmer From Ins At Table, in 1908. The gentle washes of color are really beautiful. I imagine Anker, with his brush, coaxing the pigment to settle on the page, the watermarks doing their thing, creating soft edges and subtle gradations. He probably knew this guy, maybe he’d seen him a million times, sitting just like this, pipe in hand, a glass and bottle nearby. I wonder what Anker was thinking about as he painted? Was he thinking about how light falls on the wrinkles of the farmer’s face, or how the colors of the liquid in the glass shift and change in the light? Did he consider other ways of seeing or representing the farmer, or did he trust his intuitive response to the scene before him? It makes me think about other artists, like Courbet, who also painted ordinary people and everyday scenes with such empathy and attention. Painters, we're always in conversation with each other, even across time. We look, we respond, we interpret, and in the process, we keep the dialogue going.