Nude Pulling On Stocking c. 1925

William Glackens painted this image of a woman pulling on a stocking with oil on canvas, and the surface is pure pleasure. I bet he loved working on this piece. There’s a Renoir-ish softness, with the forms dissolving into these loose, feathery brushstrokes of blues, pinks, and greens. The way the colors blend and bleed into each other, it’s like he’s not just painting a figure, but trying to capture the fleeting, ephemeral nature of light and atmosphere. I can imagine him stepping back, squinting, and then lunging forward to dab a bit of color here and there, building up the image layer by layer. The gesture of the hand pulling up the stocking is particularly great. It's the kind of everyday movement that suddenly becomes monumental when it's rendered in paint. Glackens is in conversation with the past while looking forward, which is how painting always progresses, with each artist speaking to those who came before while forging their own path.