Juanita (also known as Juanita in Blue) 1917

Robert Henri painted Juanita, also known as Juanita in Blue, with oil on canvas. Look how the light hits Juanita’s face, it's so soft. You can see the brushstrokes moving around her face. The blue of her dress is like the blue of the sky right after it rains, that deep, intense blue that makes you feel alive. And the red necklace! A tiny slash of passion against the cool blue. I wonder what Henri was thinking when he painted this. Was he trying to capture her essence? Her spirit? Was he looking at Manet and thinking about capturing a certain truth in painting? Look how the colors bleed into each other, like dreams mixing with reality. That's what painting is all about, isn't it? It's not just about representing something, it's about creating something new, something that didn't exist before. I think we can all relate to this, we all carry the burden of painting's history with us. And maybe, just maybe, we can add something new to the conversation.