Portrait de Marguerite Decazes de Glucksbierg, princesse Jean de Broglie 1905 - 1914

Jacques-Émile Blanche captured Marguerite Decazes de Glucksbierg, princesse Jean de Broglie, in what looks like a flurry of brushstrokes. There's a sense of the painting having been built up, stroke by stroke, decisions made and then changed as the artist worked on it. I can imagine Blanche pacing back and forth, squinting at his subject, trying to capture something of her essence in paint. Look at how the browns and reds of the background seem to press forward, enveloping the figure, while at the bottom of the canvas, those strokes of pink and green feel almost like a burst of unexpected joy. There's a confidence to those marks, a sense of, "Yes, that's it, that's what I wanted to say." For me, this piece speaks to how artists are always in conversation with one another, building on the ideas and techniques of those who came before, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.