Étude pour le Cercle de l’île de Puteaux 1907

Henri Gervex daubed this study with oil paint, no doubt en plein air, right in the thick of things. Imagine Gervex, squinting through the sunlight filtering through the trees, trying to capture the essence of the Circle de l’île de Puteaux, an exclusive, oh-so-chic club that he was preparing to immortalize on canvas. I can see him, dabbing at the canvas with quick, sure strokes, trying to nail that fleeting impression of light and shadow. The paint’s not too thick, but you can tell he was really laying it on in places, especially in the foreground where he was capturing the details of bonnets, flowers, and hats. Look at the bold, red strokes—you can almost feel the texture of the petals! And, what about the way he used those little flicks of white to suggest the sun glinting off a fancy parasol or hat? I bet those details took a long time to perfect. Gervex, like all of us, was part of a big conversation amongst artists, all of whom are constantly bouncing ideas off one another and influencing each other’s techniques. Every painting, every mark, is a piece of that dialogue. And the best part? It’s a dialogue that never really ends, don’t you think?