Portrait of An Unknown 1927

This portrait of an unknown woman was painted by Adalbert Erdeli, using visible, expressive brushstrokes. It's clear that the making of this work was a process led by mark making. The physicality of the paint is really interesting here; it's not about hiding the process. Instead, you can clearly see the texture and the direction of Erdeli's strokes. The paint is applied with varying thickness, giving a tactile quality to the work. Look at how the red-orange spots on her clothes have been applied with short strokes that appear quite dry, whereas the background appears blended. This area is in contrast to the flowers and the landscape we can see through the window, which have been dabbed on with a looser handling of the paint. This piece reminds me a little of Bonnard. They both embrace this kind of ambiguity, where the painting feels more like a suggestion than a strict representation. It's like they're saying, "Here's what I saw, but also, here's how I felt seeing it."