Woman in Red Peignoir 1910

Theo van Rysselberghe painted this woman in a red robe, probably in his studio, with oils on canvas. Look at the way he's knocked it out, bold, loose, raw. I’m trying to imagine being him, right? What’s he thinking as he dabs these little brushstrokes of flesh, and then those juicy strokes of pink and blue in the robe! The paint here is not trying to hide, it's right there on the surface. I love that he doesn’t fuss too much, instead the painting feels fresh, spontaneous. It makes me think about Bonnard and Vuillard, how they were exploring the intimate world of the everyday. There’s an honesty here, a willingness to let the painting be itself, awkward and unresolved. And that’s the thing about painting, isn’t it? It's a conversation across time, artists riffing off each other, taking chances, and pushing the boundaries of what paint can do.