Portrait of a Girl 1974

Corneliu Baba made this small painting, *Portrait of a Girl*, with oil on canvas, and I immediately notice the expressive, gestural brushstrokes. The paint seems almost sculptural, doesn't it? Baba uses thick, opaque layers to build up the form of the girl’s face and the folds of her headscarf, really emphasizing the materiality of the medium. Look closely at the way he modeled the face, a mix of pinks, browns and yellows to capture the warmth of her skin. Baba’s palette is muted, earthy, yet there's a tenderness in the way he captures her gaze. It feels like he’s really thinking about how he can use the materiality of the paint to give her both weight and presence, even vulnerability. This portrait reminds me of Lucian Freud's portraits, where the physical presence of the sitter is made palpable through the artist’s attention to detail and use of paint. Like Freud, Baba shows us that painting is not just about representation, it’s about the exchange between artist and subject, and how meaning can emerge from that encounter.