Self portrait on a blue background 1909

This is Robert Falk's self-portrait painted with oils on canvas. What strikes me is how Falk layers colors, like a carefully constructed puzzle. It's not just about matching skin tones, but about building depth. The materiality is really something here. Up close, you can see the texture of the paint, thick in places and thin in others. Look at the way he renders the beard with these little jabs of color. It's almost sculptural, but at the same time, so fleeting. It makes me wonder, was he looking in the mirror, really trying to capture his essence, or was he just exploring the possibilities of paint, of color? There’s something of Matisse, maybe even Cezanne, in the way Falk thinks about form, but he’s doing his own thing. I like that in the end, art is always a conversation between artists, a constant back-and-forth of ideas.