Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni 1916

Here we see Max Oppenheimer's portrait of Ferruccio Busoni rendered with palpable energy and feeling. Painted with earthy browns, grays, and blacks, the artist captures Busoni in a moment of intense concentration at the piano. I imagine Oppenheimer, brush in hand, circling his subject like a composer arranging notes. His dynamic strokes build form out of restless energy. Look closely, and you can almost hear the music, visualize the keys depressed, and sense the emotion of the composition. Those hands are truly amazing. The artist has built them up with such detail, you can almost see them moving. Like other expressionist painters, Oppenheimer wasn’t just recording what he saw, but also his emotional response to Busoni's creative energy, his virtuosity. Ultimately, artists are always talking to other artists across time. They pick up each other’s cues, they develop each other’s insights. It's like a game of telephone! Painting is a way of thinking through our bodies. We make marks, we feel, we adjust, and we see where it leads.