Portrait of Lorinc Szabo 1923

Jozsef Rippl-Ronai made this portrait of Lorinc Szabo with soft, feathery marks, using a color palette that's like a hazy dream. You can almost feel the artist gently layering pastel upon pastel, coaxing the image into being through a process of building, erasing, and refining. I wonder what Rippl-Ronai was thinking as he rendered Szabo’s features in these delicate hues. Was he trying to capture not just a likeness, but the essence of the man? Look at the way the blue of the coat seems to vibrate against the pale background – it’s as if the very air around Szabo is charged with energy. And notice how the subtle variations in tone and texture give the surface a kind of shimmering quality, drawing you in closer, inviting you to lose yourself in the depths of the image. It puts me in mind of other artists like Odilon Redon, who were exploring similar territory, pushing the boundaries of representation in search of something deeper, more elusive. Artists are always riffing off each other!