Portrait of a Woman 1940

Maggie Laubser gave us this portrait of a woman, sometime in the early 40s, with strokes of oil paint that feel both careful and impulsive. Laubser has built up a surface, you can almost feel the give of the canvas! The redness of her jacket is so alive, it almost vibrates against the cool turquoise of her blouse. And check out the way she’s handled the background, those swooping, almost theatrical drapes, feel so free compared to the more controlled face of the subject. There's a real tension between the immediacy of her brushstrokes and the formality of the portrait. Maybe that tension’s the whole point? In some ways, it reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another artist who wasn’t afraid to push paint around and let the process show. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art thrives on these kinds of conversations, across time and between artists, where fixed meanings dissolve into a space of endless possibilities.