Portrait of Ernest Thiel 1907

This is Edvard Munch’s portrait of Ernest Thiel, painted with oils on canvas, and it's like looking at a memory taking shape. Munch’s brushstrokes feel so alive, like quick, fleeting thoughts. The way he lays down the dark blues and blacks of Thiel’s suit against the ghostly whites and blues of the background creates a figure that is both there and not there. You can almost feel Munch wrestling with the image, deciding what to keep and what to let go of. Look at how the paint thins out towards the bottom of the canvas, giving way to these raw, unfinished lines that sketch out Thiel’s legs and feet. This rawness, this openness about the making process, reminds me of late portraits by someone like Alice Neel, where the artist’s hand is so present. It reminds us that paintings aren't just images, they are traces of an encounter between artist and subject.