Head of a little girl in a blue dress 1919

Tadeusz Makowski made this painting of a girl’s head, in a blue dress, with oil paint, at a time that has not been recorded. The painting, it looks like, came into being layer by layer, through trial, error, and intuition. The colour palette shifts, browns and reds, settling around the face. I can feel the artist sympathizing with his subject, perhaps imagining the scene himself, a little girl in a blue dress, sitting for a portrait, or maybe just a portrait from memory. The paint looks thick, see how it sits on the surface, adding texture and depth to the image. Look at the brushstrokes around the eyes— how they communicate feeling, intention, or meaning. The piece connects to the wider history of portrait painting. The way artists are always in conversation, exchanging ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. It is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.