Cape Cod 

Emil Carlsen created this scene, Cape Cod, using oil paints on canvas. The visible brushstrokes are part of the story, aren't they? Carlsen wasn’t necessarily interested in painting a photo-realistic view of the coast. Instead, we see Carlsen’s own handiwork in the layering of colors and textures, almost like a landscape built up with trowels of plaster. It’s a painterly approach – one that emphasizes the act of creation just as much as the place that’s depicted. In this approach, Carlsen was part of a broader move away from the strictures of academic painting. Artists began to take more liberties in how they handled paint and what subjects they chose to represent. The rise of industrial capitalism had created a new class of wealthy consumers, and the art market expanded to accommodate their tastes. So, it is not just the scene depicted, but the materiality of this painting that is of most interest to us, and the changing landscape of art itself.