Interior with the Chimera Playing the Guitar 1908

Jacek Malczewski made this painting of a woman playing a guitar in an interior space, but who's to say when? The colour palette is muted, almost monochromatic. The painting must have been shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. The artist is trying to create a mood, a psychological space where things aren’t quite what they seem, because the chimera of the title might be the music itself. Maybe the artist felt that painting was like playing an instrument? The paint is thin, so the weave of the canvas shows through. The soft light coming through the window gives a sense of atmosphere and introspection. I like how the whole picture is really about color relationships, just like Bonnard! There’s no single way to interpret this work, but I like that the artist is embracing ambiguity, and that it allows for multiple interpretations.