José van Gool’s paintings of impressionist inspirations and city expressions are playful, rich, and sometimes mournful gestures of a seductive world. The human figure, alone or existing with others, is the central force of each canvas. At times, the figures contrast sharply with the warm, misty backgrounds they are set against, and in other paintings, they melt into these backgrounds, seemingly absorbed. These are everyday scenes, all of them, but the painter transforms them into dreamscapes, hypnotic and vast.