Admiral Viaud 1901

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec gave us Admiral Viaud, but when? Just look at that red coat against the muted blues and greens of the sea and sky. He was probably working alla prima, wet on wet, with loose brushstrokes, capturing the scene quickly, intuitively. You can see him wrestling with the depiction of the Admiral. What was Lautrec thinking as he worked? He’s given us a real person here, but it feels more like a snapshot, not a portrait. What was it like to paint this man? The paint looks thin, fluid, allowing the forms to emerge and dissolve, blurring the boundaries. The Admiral's arm pointing towards the ship – what does it mean? Warning? A greeting? Maybe he was thinking about Goya or Manet – their ability to capture a gesture, an expression, a moment in time. Artists are always in conversation with one another, borrowing ideas and pushing them further. Painting is a process of constant questioning, where the answers are never fixed, and meaning is always open to interpretation. It's about feeling and responding.