Head and Shoulders Portrait 1910

Roderic O'Conor made this portrait with brushes and oil paint, its surface built up through layers of colour. I can only imagine the process of finding the right mark. The artist may have stepped back, squinting and trying again. It looks like they were wrestling with an idea – what this person meant to them – and how to get that down on canvas. Look at the hat: thick daubs of black, built up to create form, each stroke full of energy. The colour palette is very restricted: greys, blacks, whites and earth tones. This makes the red signature in the upper left especially noticeable. You get the feeling that O'Conor was using colour to create a mood, an atmosphere of melancholic introspection. Painters like O’Conor pass on their knowledge through touch. We see their decisions, learn from their experience, and develop our language, which is the language of painting.