Autoportrait au chevalet 1930

This is Maximilien Luce painting himself at the easel, and it’s an image made entirely of soft edges and muted tones. Luce’s mark-making feels thoughtful; you get the sense that the painting emerged through careful consideration, one small dab of paint at a time. Look closely, and you can really see how the texture of the paint contributes to the overall mood. The brushstrokes are visible everywhere, creating a tactile surface that almost invites you to touch it. In the background, behind the artist's head, there are two indistinct dark shapes. They could be bottles, but the way the light hits them, they look like ghostly apparitions. And that’s what painting can do, right? It can make the familiar feel strange, the ordinary seem extraordinary. Luce reminds me a little of Vuillard, in that they both use this sort of scumbling technique to build up the image from lots of interwoven brushstrokes. I guess it’s a good reminder that art is never made in a vacuum, that we're all in conversation with each other, borrowing and riffing on the ideas of those who came before us.