REUVEN RUBIN | WELL IN THE OLIVE FOREST

Alfred Werner discusses the influence of Rembrandt's impasto techniques and the manner of the Impressionists on Rubin's work in the 1930s: “There was to be noted a growing tendency towards fuller and stronger colour, greater textural weight and more visible movement... He who had been nature's master, re-arranging, abbreviating or distorting at will for the sake of pictorial unity, now permitted himself to be influenced into a quasi-impressionism by the silver colour of the trees guarding a winding road, or by a town on a hill viewed through misty veils of lights. The ancient olive trees became an untiring subject for Rubin and absorbed him with their form and their light, and in the opinion of outstanding critics of contemporary art, during the past years he has evolved an almost abstract conception of the subject, which the art world today readily recognizes as a distinct personal contribution,” (Alfred Werner, Rubin, Tel Aviv, 1958, pp. 8-9).