You Wish! 1907

Stefan Dimitrescu created ‘You Wish!’ with oil on canvas, and the clues to its meaning lie in the materiality and process. The canvas provides a textured ground for the image, visible beneath the paint layers, which are built up with clear attention to the behavior of the oil-based medium. Dimitrescu would have had to manage the viscosity and drying time, applying the paint with varying degrees of pressure to create highlights and shadows. The face comes into being through visible brushstrokes, carefully placed to capture the subject's likeness and expression. The darker areas are more thinly applied, while the lighter areas show a thicker impasto. These material qualities are not merely aesthetic. Oil paint has a long history, dating back to the early Renaissance. It has often been associated with wealth and status, due to the cost of materials and the time required to master the technique. Dimitrescu’s choice of this medium situates ‘You Wish!’ within a tradition of fine art, while simultaneously demonstrating his own skill and labor.