Three Pears in a Vase 1945

Helene Schjerfbeck made this painting of three pears in a vase using oils. The way Schjerfbeck builds up the paint here, in thick, luscious strokes, makes me feel like she was really present, really in the moment. You can almost see her squinting at the pears, trying to capture the way the light hits them. There is a real sense of seeing and responding. I wonder if she struggled with it, smudging the dark paint around the pears in her effort to capture the forms? Or if, like a lot of us, she was also thinking about Cezanne and his way of painting still lives? I love the way that painters can talk to each other across time, influencing each other's work. Every brushstroke is a conversation, a question, a possibility. And maybe, in the end, the painting isn't really about the pears at all. It's about the experience of seeing, feeling, and trying to make sense of the world.