Sleeping Child 1912

Henri Manguin painted this sleeping child with oils, building up the image through layers of colour. The greens, reds and oranges overlap and bleed into each other, and they let us know that this is not just about representing something real, but an exercise in pure painting. What I love about this painting is the textures. The way he's used the brush to create a kind of visual rhythm, echoing the colours. Look at the cactus in the foreground, see how the vibrant greens pop against the warm earth tones, those marks are like, alive. Manguin was part of the Fauves, those wild beasts of early modern art, and you see that freedom here, that joy in colour. Think of Matisse and Derain, and you get a sense of how Manguin fits into that moment. It’s like they were all painting the world anew, full of light and colour and just a little bit of playful anarchy.