Landscape with a Shabby Farmhouse and Three Haystacks

Jaan Koort studied both sculpture and painting at the Stieglitz Art School of St Petersburg, but his career in painting was quite short-lived. This work dates from the period when he lived and worked in Paris, but he also visited Lake Pühajärv (in South-Estonia) in 1910, so it is possible that this landscape was inspired by that moment and that place. A characteristic trait of Koort’s manner of painting is expressiveness, which becomes evident in this landscape, too: instead of elaborate brushstrokes the artist has put more emphasis on larger fields of colour and inflations. Like his peer Konrad Mägi, Koort pays special attention to clouds, which lend drama and tension to the landscape.