Anne 1964

John Bratby made this painting, Anne, with thick impasto strokes of oil paint. It’s like he's wrestling with the medium, right? I mean, look at the way he’s built up the surface, especially around Anne's face, a kaleidoscope of earthy tones, reds and browns, that almost become a mask. There's a real tension between the representational and the abstract in this work. You can almost feel the weight of the paint, mirroring the weight of Anne's contemplative pose. It's a dialogue between materiality and emotion, where the brushstrokes themselves become expressive agents. Bratby has something in common with Van Gogh’s intense application of paint and focus on domestic subjects. Both artists use painting as a means of processing raw human experience. It’s never about perfection, it's about honesty.