Improvisation on a Barrel Organ 1904

William Orpen made this painting of what I think is some kind of street party, but the way it’s put together is not quite how you might expect. It's like he started with a general impression and then got lost in the details. The whole thing shimmers with this kind of golden-brown light, kind of like an old photograph. Look at the way he painted the people. They’re all doing different things, but they’re kind of just blobs of paint, you know? It’s like he was more interested in the energy of the crowd than in painting any particular person. And then there’s this spray of green, bursting upwards like fireworks. It's as though Orpen is saying, “I’m just going to put this here, because why not?” It’s this crazy kind of freedom, you know? Orpen was a contemporary of Walter Sickert, another painter interested in light and shade, but Orpen’s version feels more playful. For me, painting is always about this kind of improvisation, this willingness to just go with it, even if you don’t know where you’re going to end up.