Matthews Gallery

Large (Wikimedia)

I wrote the other day about Charles Conder’s Tonalism- and Japanese-art-inspired oil paintings and their resemblance to water colors, but I have to write again.

This, dear reader, is Conder’s 1889 How We Lost Poor Flossie.

And even though you can plainly see the deep brush marks in the upper left side (and the cedar panel leaving little trails of grain throughout), the thick but dynamic outlines and soft, blending colors look like nothing so much as they look like a pen and ink wash.

(Plus, there’s something kind of charming about the implication that Conder lost his dog to a strange mutt in the rain.)

Stunning work, fascinating write-up. 

More art history. 

Boy Viewing Mount Fuji - Katsushika Hokusai 1839

Japan, Edo period 

Ink and color on silk, H: 127.0 W: 69.2 cm 

Let art make you feel small sometimes. 

More art history.