Blue Interior (also Known as The Red Ribbon) 1912

Frederick Carl Frieseke created this square painting – oil on canvas, I presume – of a woman in her interior, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. The scene is domestic, intimate. The woman preens in front of a mirror, reflected, captured in a moment of private ritual. I am drawn to the texture and color of the painting. See the vertical marks in the wallpaper—the soft blues and whites bleed into each other, creating a dreamy, hazy atmosphere. And the fireplace! Deep blues and whites, mirroring the stripes of the woman’s dress. I can imagine Frieseke applying each stroke with intention, building up the layers of color and texture, moving from observation, to reflection, to memory. The painting isn’t about perfect representation but, rather, evokes a feeling, an atmosphere. And that woman, lost in thought, in her own world, probably reminds him, and all of us, of another artist's interior scene! We are all just bouncing off one another. Isn't that nice?