The House Seen from the Rose Garden 1924

Monet made this painting of his house from the rose garden with oil on canvas, and it feels like a record of the act of seeing, or even more, the act of painting. It’s like he's figuring out what he thinks while he’s doing it. The way he's layered those brushstrokes, thick and opaque in some spots, thin and translucent in others, you can really feel the physicality of the medium. Look closely at the way the blues and greens kind of vibrate against each other in the trees on the right, or how the pink in the foreground almost dissolves into the path. It's like he’s letting the colors breathe and speak for themselves. It’s a pretty romantic gesture, because you feel how Monet wants you to feel: light reflecting and refracting, making it feel like a moment, something fleeting. It reminds me of the later work of Philip Guston, who was also interested in this kind of mark-making that felt so intimate and revealing. Art, it’s just one big conversation across time, a way of embracing the endless possibilities of interpretation.