Portret van een man, mogelijk in erekostuum van een orde vrijmetselaars 1880 - 1940

This photographic portrait of a man, possibly in masonic dress, by Thomas H. Bell, is mounted onto card with painted flowers around the oval image. I can almost imagine Bell holding his breath as he carefully paints these flowers. The pansies! What painter hasn’t tried to nail that velvety texture? I remember when I was trying to capture irises – how the paper just wouldn’t take the wetness, and how the colors would bleed out of control. Here, the painting feels like it was made with a nervous kind of joy. Did Bell paint them from life? Or from memory? You can see the way they trail off at the sides. He might be thinking of wallpaper, a bit like Bonnard. In a painting, every stroke is a decision, a little conversation between the eye, the hand, and the world. We can feel the weight of that history. The more I look, the more I realize artists borrow, steal, and transform each other’s ideas. It’s a beautiful, messy lineage.