Dancing Light of Morning

Dancing Light of Morning from c. 1925 is Broemel's most purely atmospheric watercolor, reducing the landscape to its essential elements of air, light, and the movements of morning illumination. The title—Dancing Light of Morning—identifies the subject as the light itself rather than the objects it illuminates, making this watercolor one of the most radical explorations of atmospheric effect in early 20th-century American painting. The watercolor medium is particularly suited to this subject because its transparency allows Broemel to build up layers of luminous color that create the effect of light moving through air.

Dancing Light of Morning is one of the most radical American watercolors of the 1920s because it makes light itself the subject rather than the objects that light illuminates. This approach—treating light as the primary subject of landscape painting—anticipates the Color Field painters' exploration of pure color and light by several decades, and demonstrates that the American watercolor tradition was capable of producing works as adventurous as any in American painting.

Dancing Light of Morning is Broemel's watercolor at its most radical: light itself as the subject, not the objects that light illuminates. The transparency of watercolor allows layers of luminous color to build up the effect of morning light moving through air—anticipating the Color Field painters' exploration of pure color and light by decades.