The dream of a big fish

A young boy in a green cap, blue scarf and red trousers sits in a small blue rowboat, oar shipped beside him, holding a long fishing rod over the water. Directly in front of the boat, half submerged, an enormous fish drifts through the shallows, its scaled body far larger than anything the boy could actually catch.

Rendered in soft grey, brown and blue washes with delicate reed silhouettes in the foreground, the watercolor keeps its forms loose and translucent, letting the paper's white ground supply the light. The oversized fish, painted with the same quiet restraint as the rest of the scene, turns an ordinary fishing trip into a gentle daydream.