Madame Theo van Rysselberghe 1907

This is a painting of Madame Theo van Rysselberghe by her husband, Theo van Rysselberghe, although we don't know exactly when he made it. Look at the stipples, daubs, and jabs of paint. I can imagine Theo standing in front of the canvas, his brush a nimble extension of his hand, laying down these touches of color with care and precision. What do you think they talked about during the sittings? Did she ever critique his technique, or did she just sigh a lot? Did they argue? The pointillist technique reminds me a little of Seurat, but also of someone like Fairfield Porter, whose wife also shows up in his paintings. The polka dot pattern of her shirt echoes and complicates the stippling in the background. His color sensibility is soft, even if the touch is a little insistent. It all gives the painting a kind of luminous quality, as if the light itself is made of tiny particles. These artists, they're all in conversation with each other across time, feeding off each other's ideas. And we viewers, we get to eavesdrop, piecing together our own interpretations from the clues they leave behind.