Breakfast in the Garden 1916

Frederick Carl Frieseke made Breakfast in the Garden, and it feels like he did it with light itself, layering up spots of color like some kind of Impressionist pointillism party. I can almost feel the sun on my skin looking at this; imagining Frieseke outside, squinting maybe, trying to capture that dappled light. What was it like to paint that floral dress, dot by dot? The way the colors mix optically, it’s a beautiful thing. It makes me think of Bonnard, that fellow painter who also loved to paint the intimate moments of domestic life. Those little touches of red in the flowers and the child’s hair tie are genius. They're so small but they pull your eye around the canvas. I can feel the artist wanting to bring the whole scene to life and it does. Like a memory, it is a moment suspended in time. It's like he's saying: “Look, life is beautiful.” And you know what? I think it is too.