Petite Tête De Profil 1905

Henri Lebasque made Petite Tête De Profil with oil on canvas. It’s a really lovely example of a painter wrestling with the challenge of capturing light and form in a fleeting moment. The texture is built up from these soft, feathery brushstrokes. Look closely, and you can almost feel the give and take of the brush against the canvas. The colours are muted, but there's a real vibrancy in the way he layers and blends them. The way the lavender and pale blues in her dress sort of bleed into the surrounding space is really striking. If you look at the way Lebasque renders the girl’s hair, it's almost like he’s not just painting hair, but also the light playing across it, with strokes of brown and gold. It reminds me a little of Berthe Morisot, who had that similar sensitivity to light and domestic scenes. With Lebasque it's less about perfection and more about embracing the beauty of imperfection.