Woman in ink Dress and Black Collar 1915

Jozsef Rippl-Ronai made this picture of a "Woman in Ink Dress and Black Collar" with soft chalky pastels in dreamy pinks, blacks, and whites. I like to think of how he built up those layers, how they moved across the surface, feeling for a likeness, searching through colour. Imagine Rippl-Ronai trying to get that just-right pink for the dress. Was it too sweet at first? I wonder if he darkened it with a bit of black? The velvety black collar, it’s almost like it’s holding the composition together, a stabilizing force in a haze of soft tones. The gaze of the sitter is a little melancholic, a little flirtatious. I am reminded of other portrait painters, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Elizabeth Peyton. Rippl-Ronai is clearly in conversation with them, across time. He inspires them, they inspire him, they all inspire me. Painting is like that, an exchange, an echo, a mirror. It’s all about looking, thinking, and feeling in colour.