Marble Steps 

Curator: What a gorgeous study in muted tones. There’s something melancholic, yet undeniably peaceful about this cityscape. It feels…still, suspended. Editor: We’re looking at "Marble Steps," a watercolour piece likely created by the hand of Frits Thaulow. Its impressionistic style pulls you into this timeless European vista. Thaulow emphasizes structure, with the steps as a series of receding horizontals set against the verticals of the mooring posts and buildings across the canal. It’s like a visual equation, balancing stasis and depth. Curator: A visual equation! Oh, I like that! It's true though, isn't it? The geometric quality of the stonework versus the looseness of the water’s surface. I feel the painting’s more about absence than presence…as if whoever belonged there stepped away just moments before, you know? The lone gondola, bobbing gently...like a ghostly passenger is still on board, in transit. Editor: Exactly, it's a deliberate compositional contrast. Thaulow plays with linear perspective to compress the scene, while simultaneously disrupting that linearity with the reflections on the water's surface. It flattens yet deepens the space. The restricted colour palette—dominated by greys and blues—underscores the geometrical arrangement. It’s form taking precedence. Curator: Maybe that's why the melancholic touch sings through to me… the lack of human warmth pushes you into the geometry, making you look at shapes instead of stories. Yet the loose watercolor style...it creates a longing! Like looking at a dream...half remembered. Or maybe it’s just my own romanticizing! Editor: Romanticizing serves its own critical purpose; that subjective take, if grounded in observation, still reveals. And it does connect with the feeling this painting seems to stir in all viewers. The formal restraint allows the space for individual emotional engagement, doesn't it? Curator: It does, yes. The older I get, the more art I find beauty in. It is the perfect imperfection... That ability to evoke feeling and create the feeling from looking at it. And this particular study speaks so beautifully to that quality, it is one of my favourites for sure. Editor: Yes, and maybe that tension you describe is where the painting breathes… that space between intention and interpretation, where the artist relinquishes control and the viewer enters to complete the picture. Thank you for that great interpretation!