National Railway Station Restaurant, Vienna X, Josef Pohl (Restaurant Staatsbahnhof, Wien X, Josef Pohl) 1911

Gustav Kalhammer made this little postcard, National Railway Station Restaurant, Vienna, out of ink and watercolor. The scene is so evocative - a bit like peeking into a dollhouse, or maybe a memory. I love the way he renders the space, everything feels slightly tilted, slightly off, which gives it a kind of nervous energy. It's a simple picture, but there's a lot of texture here. You can see the grain of the paper and the way the watercolor bleeds. Look at the red of the seats. Notice how the colour isn’t perfectly consistent, which gives it a handmade, intimate feeling. There's a little bird floating from the ceiling, just above the tables, casting a shadow, like a dream. Maybe this cafe, like many train stations, is a place of passage, anticipation, and maybe this postcard is a reminder that art, like travel, can take us to unexpected places. Like the work of Egon Schiele, Kalhammer's work has a direct and raw expressionistic quality.