After the Bath c. 1925

Frederick Carl Frieseke made this painting with oil on canvas. It is awash with dominant gestural marks and a colour palette of reds and blues with patches of gold and green. I imagine this painting came into being through a slow process of layering, shifting, and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I really sympathize with Frieseke here and can only imagine what it must have been like for him to create. What he might have been thinking when he made it? The paint looks thin, and the surface is soft, which shapes my experience and contributes to the emotional resonances of the work. Look how he has dabbed at the canvas creating a sense of dappled sunlight and shadow. Frieseke’s paintings and other impressionist painters are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. The result is an ambiguous and uncertain image, allowing for multiple interpretations.