Costume Picture II 1909

Helene Schjerfbeck’s ‘Costume Picture II’ is a painting that comes across to me as a dance between presence and absence. I get the feeling Schjerfbeck might have been thinking about the Old Masters, maybe even Velasquez, but she's simplifying everything, stripping it back to its essence. Look at those muted greys and whites, punctuated by the faintest blush of pink and that solitary orange. There's a tenderness in the way she renders the sitter's face, a gentle capturing of a quiet moment. It's like she's trying to catch a fleeting thought, the beginning of a memory. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, which gives a sense of light, of the air moving around the figure. I love the way she captures light, it seems to be emanating from everywhere and nowhere. For me, this piece speaks to the ongoing conversation among painters across time. We're all borrowing, stealing, riffing off each other, trying to find our own voice in the chorus.