Kaunas, old houses 1931

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky made this watercolor of old houses in Kaunas. It's got this wonderful, muted palette – grays, browns, and a touch of red – that feels like a memory. You get the sense he's thinking about painting as a process. He's almost like he's gently coaxing the image onto the paper. The paint is thin and transparent, allowing the texture of the paper to peek through, especially in the sky and the street. There’s a beautiful balance between detail and looseness here. Look at the way he renders the brickwork on the building to the right with delicate washes of color, or those lines of washing hanging on the roof. You can almost feel the breeze. Then there’s the confident, dark strokes that define the figure walking along the street. It's like he's playing with different modes of seeing, letting some areas fade into abstraction while others snap into sharp focus. It reminds me a bit of Edward Hopper. Both artists have this knack for capturing the quiet, melancholic beauty of urban life. It's a piece that embraces ambiguity, inviting you to wander through its streets and construct your own story.