Irene 1933

Mark Rothko made this painting of Irene with oil on canvas; you can see him figuring things out, shifting forms, adding a bit, subtracting a bit. I like to imagine him painting, the canvas propped up, maybe turning it around, trying to feel his way into the subject, Irene herself. Look at the surface of the painting; the paint is thin, like a wash. It gives the portrait an ethereal quality, as though Irene is emerging from the shadows, a figure captured in a moment of contemplation. Rothko uses a limited palette—earthy browns, muted reds, and blacks. He wasn't always doing that! These colors create a somber, intimate mood, drawing us closer to the subject’s inner world. It connects him to painters like Whistler or Manet, but Rothko is going his own way, and it’s through paintings like this one that he gets there. Painting is a conversation that never ends. Rothko learned from the past, pushed against it, and he's still teaching us how to see and feel in new ways.