Landschaftstudie - Dorfstrasse 1908

Alexej von Jawlensky made this landscape painting with oil on board, and you can see the energy he put into it. Looking at this painting, I can really feel the artist experimenting with how the brush strokes bring the image into being. The colors are so bold and alive – that bright orange roof against the deep blue sky, wow! It looks like he really went for it, putting down the paint with confidence. I can imagine Jawlensky standing in front of his subject, working quickly to catch the feeling of the place. I'm guessing he wanted to capture the scene's atmosphere as much as the literal shapes of the buildings. The paint is applied in a way that's both deliberate and kind of raw, which makes the whole scene feel so immediate and present. The way Jawlensky fearlessly uses colour makes me think of other expressionist painters like Kirchner or Heckel. It's like they're all pushing each other to see how much emotion they can get out of a simple brushstroke!