Gezicht op de Noordzee before 1905

This is G. van Calcar's “Gezicht op de Noordzee”, or “View of the North Sea”. The North Sea is evoked with dark blues, grays and whites. I imagine van Calcar outside, squinting at the wind, trying to capture the chaos of the ocean, the froth of the waves, the gloom of the sky. The paint looks kind of thin. It’s not fighting you, and not smooth either. I wonder, was he also looking at Courbet's seascapes? Or maybe he just spent a lot of time watching the sea. I can almost feel the cold and the salt spray on my skin. The painting is not a perfect picture, but something more immediate and raw. These northern European painters, they are all in conversation with each other, each trying to catch the mood. Painting becomes a way of touching something beyond words, the intangible feeling of being in nature, uncertain and a little overwhelmed.