Nude Pulling On Stocking c. 1925

William James Glackens made Nude Pulling On Stocking with oil paint, but when, we don’t know. The approach to mark making here is all about softness, with colours blending into each other as Glackens prioritises tone and light over hard edges. You can really see the texture and materiality of the paint up close. Everything is evoked with short dashes of colour. Look at the stocking – is it green? Is it grey? Is it blue? It's all of those things, somehow. The magic of painting is conjuring a solid form from colour, but keeping that openness and fluidity too. There’s something almost Renoir-like in the way the figure emerges from the warm ground of the painting, which makes me think about the many different ways of seeing. How we are all influenced by the art that comes before us. It’s an ongoing conversation. The painting lets you lose yourself in the moment and embrace its ambiguity, and maybe even find something new each time you look at it.