Den druknede 1905 - 1906

Karl Isakson made this watercolour, Den druknede, or The Drowned One, at an unknown date. The watery blues and greens wash across the page, making you feel like you're looking into a murky depth. The way the body is rendered, so pale and indistinct, it seems like it's both floating and dissolving at the same time, which is a pretty neat trick if you ask me. The whole thing has this quality, where the process of painting—the fluidity of the watercolour, the way the colours bleed into each other—mirrors the subject. It’s a brave thing to do, letting the painting have a life of its own, even if it means you're not in total control. It makes me think of other artists, like Odilon Redon, who embraced the strange and the ethereal. It reminds us that art is always in conversation with itself.