Kaunas, old houses 1931

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky made this watercolour, of old houses in Kaunas, at an unknown date. I like to imagine him standing there, trying to capture the way the buildings seem to huddle together. It’s a familiar scene, somehow melancholic, but also kind of funny. The paint is applied thinly, allowing the paper to breathe, with delicate strokes and washes building up the forms. See how the roof angles are slightly off, and the lines of the buildings waver, but they make the whole composition come alive, like a slightly out-of-tune piano. You can almost feel him sympathizing with these old structures, the weight of history bearing down on them, but still standing, still full of stories. Maybe he’s thinking about his own place in the world, his own journey, his own architecture. Isn’t that what painting is all about?