Czóbel Alvó Lány 1930 1930

Bela Czobel captured this sleeping girl with oils sometime around 1930. The earthy browns and blues are layered with such energy that the painting almost vibrates. You can see the brushstrokes, thick and deliberate, building up the form of her body, the curve of her arm, the fall of her hair. I can imagine Czobel standing before the canvas, grappling with the weight and texture of the paint, trying to capture something fleeting. Like, what is she dreaming? Is she comfortable? What is her relationship to the artist? Maybe each stroke was a question, a probing into the mystery of another person's inner life. The little spot of dark paint—is that a beauty mark, or a shadow? How much can a mark convey? It’s this kind of back-and-forth that makes painting so alive. Painters build on one another's work, you know? From Manet to Bonnard, so many artists have been drawn to the intimate moment of a person asleep. It's like they're all asking, how can we make feeling visible?