Women Bathing 1919

Hippolyte Petitjean made this painting, Women Bathing, with oil on canvas, though we don’t know exactly when. Look how he builds up the image from a constellation of tiny dots, like pixels from an old computer screen. You can really see the process, the labour and time involved. What's interesting about this is how the tiny marks aggregate and dissolve again as your eye moves across the surface. There's a beautiful tension between detail and the overall impression, a shimmering haze that vibrates with light. Look at the almost iridescent quality of the skin tones, pinks, yellows, blues that mix optically. And the way he describes the water with little flicks of blue and white. Petitjean was working in the wake of Seurat, who really pioneered this technique, but I think this painting has a tenderness and intimacy that’s all its own. Ultimately, it invites us to slow down, to really see. It reminds us that art is as much about the journey, the making, as it is about any fixed image.