Portrait of the Artist Magnus Enckell 1915

Alfred William Finch painted this portrait of Magnus Enckell with oil on canvas, and wow, the surface is alive! I’m really drawn to how Finch builds up the face with these deliberate, almost staccato marks. It’s like he's constructing the portrait out of pure color. Look how he lets the ochre ground peek through in the face, creating these unexpected tonal shifts that vibrate. You can almost feel the give and take of the brush against the canvas. The way Finch uses visible brushstrokes reminds me of Van Gogh, but with a cooler palette. He's not afraid to let us see the process, to feel the materiality of the paint. It's like he's saying, "Here's the thing, and here's how I made it." The physical act of painting is right there on the surface, raw and unfiltered. Ultimately, this piece is less about capturing a likeness and more about the messy, beautiful act of making. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation.