Gymnast 1912

Eugène Jansson created this painting of a gymnast and his rings sometime in 1912, using light and shadow to create a dreamy and contemplative atmosphere. Look at the way the body is rendered, how Jansson explores this figure, suspended upside down, caught between effort and release. I can imagine the artist meditating on the body's strength, its vulnerability, the beauty of pure form, and the challenge of capturing movement on a static surface. I wonder if Jansson ever did gymnastics himself? I bet he felt the burn in his shoulders as he was painting this. There's a kind of kinship here with other artists of the time, like Paula Modersohn-Becker, who were also pushing the boundaries of figuration. I feel like Jansson is asking us to consider how much the act of painting asks us to be in conversation with ourselves, with our own bodies, and how this then translates on canvas.