Glass Perfume Bottle c. 1939

Isabelle De Strange made this painting of a glass perfume bottle, and it just shimmers, doesn’t it? I imagine her, brush in hand, teasing out those little white circles, letting the red bleed and bloom around them. It must have been a real dance to capture the glass, the light playing tricks, turning solid form into something almost liquid. The whole thing feels so delicate, like it could shatter if you looked at it too hard. And that red! It’s so rich, so full of life. I keep thinking about other artists who’ve chased that kind of intensity, like Matisse, trying to pin down that fleeting feeling of being alive. De Strange invites us into that feeling of chasing something lovely, even if you never quite catch it. It’s like all these artists are in conversation across time, riffing off each other, trying to make sense of the world.