Exile – right section of the triptych 1909

Jacek Malczewski painted this section of Exile as a triptych. It's oil on canvas, and although it hasn't been dated, it probably emerged around 1909. The painter seems so close to the sitter, and maybe they feel the same way about each other. The intimacy of the pose, the careful attention to the red beard and slightly bloodshot eyes suggest a deep and abiding interest on the part of the painter. You can see it in the careful gradations of brown paint of the jacket as well as the way the hand just barely holds the glass of whiskey. I wonder what Malczewski was thinking as he brushed thin layers of translucent glaze across the canvas. The number 609 sits rather uncomfortably on his left shoulder. It doesn't look like an accident. I think about all the painters who have come before and after Malczewski - all those folks who put paint on canvas to make a feeling into something visible.