Anna Snijder

In the work Venice, Anna Snijder creates a visual meditation on impermanence. Stylistically, the piece combines the atmospheric luminosity of William Turner’s late works with the modern squeegee technique pioneered by Gerhard Richter. Snijder uses this tool to architecturally build up impasto surfaces in ochre and sand, only to veil them again through mechanical abrasion, creating the effect of a weathered, history-steeped facade.

The structure thrives on a complex sfumato effect: the misty white zones are the result of a physical wiping process, in which light-colored paint was scraped thinly over the damp underlying layers. This creates diffuse transitions that allow what lies beneath to shine through only as shadowy forms. Fine, brush-applied graphic lines in black and cool blue function as skeletal anchor points, reminiscent of masts or the stark silhouettes of Venetian canals.

The interpretation of the title Venice points to the beauty of the morbid. The painting captures that specific autumnal morning mood in which the damp chill of winter is already in the air and the rising fog places the architecture in timeless silence. It is a moment in which the massive city and the fleeting weather of the lagoon permeate each other layer by layer on the canvas.