El Segoviano 1923

Robert Henri made this portrait of El Segoviano with oil on canvas, and the brushstrokes just crackle with life! Look at that wild hat, casting a shadow over his brow, and the way the colours pop, even against that dark blue ground. I can almost feel Henri in the studio, wrestling with the paint, trying to capture this guy's spirit. What was it like to meet him? Was he gruff, or kind? A man of few words? You get the feeling Henri was taken by his character, those weathered hands gripping his walking stick. The paint is so thick in places, it's like he's building up layers of emotion, not just pigment. Painters are always talking to each other, even across time. Henri reminds me of Manet, or maybe even Hals, with that bold brushwork and the way he lets the paint do its thing. Painting like this is a way of thinking, of seeing, of feeling the world in all its messy, beautiful complexity.