Czobel Bela Milena 1940 1940

Bela Czobel rendered this portrait of Milena in 1940 with what seems to be charcoal or maybe thin, washy paint. You can almost see the artist's hand moving across the surface, smudging and blurring the lines, as if trying to capture a fleeting thought. I imagine Czobel standing before the canvas, squinting at his model, trying to nail the essence of her gaze. What's she thinking? There's a softness to the whole image, a kind of hazy dreaminess. The monochromatic palette, somewhere between grey and black, gives it a timeless quality, like an old photograph. Look at the way he suggests the curve of her cheek with just a few strokes; it reminds me of other portraits of the period, such as Picasso's portraits of women, where the artist is more interested in capturing an emotion, a feeling. It’s like they're all talking to each other across time, these artists, riffing on the same ideas, pushing the boundaries of what a painting can be.