Cherso (Island), 1920/1923

With an austere composition, short dynamic brushstrokes, and deliberately placed contrasts in color intensity, the East Tyrolean painter Albin Egger-Lienz (1868–1926) unfolds the view of the island of Cherso—Italian for the Croatian Cres—seen from the mainland coast. In classical style, using foreground, middle ground and background, he segments the picture area into horizontal color fields. The horizon divides the picture area almost symmetrically into two halves. From the broad edge line of the sea surface, the range of hills on the island rises out of the water in delicate light blue tones. Above it, a pale, transparent sky spreads out that brightens up toward the middle and bathes the elevations in soft light. Far behind the narrow strip of Adriatic coastline in the foreground, the view of the island panoramically unfolds, with the azure Mediterranean extending between them, heavy and calm. Ocher rocks dominate in the foreground and dynamize the overall impression.

MH, 2021