Toledo 1910

Childe Hassam made this drawing, Toledo, on a piece of cardboard using pastel. I love the way the cardboard peeks through. It’s a reminder that art is never just about what's on the surface, but also about the surface itself. The cardboard sets the tone. Hassam uses the pastels, not to hide the ground, but to dance with it. Look at how he builds up the façade of the building. You can see the strokes, the individual marks, like hesitations in a conversation. They create a shimmer that makes the stone feel alive, like it's breathing in the Spanish sun. The building isn’t just sitting there; it's got a pulse. Think about how a contemporary like Vuillard would take a similar approach, building up an image from a mass of marks and tones, until an image emerges. It’s all about embracing the accidental, the unfinished, the unresolved. That’s where the magic happens.