Cigar Store Indian 1935 - 1942

Marius Hansen painted "Cigar Store Indian" in watercolor on paper, and it feels like he did it with so much care. The warm reds and greens, and the way the figure is centered, holding those cigars, make you wonder what Hansen was thinking about. Was he trying to capture a moment in time, or was he trying to say something about how we see each other? The details, like the folds in the clothing and the carved wood texture, are so precisely rendered. You can almost feel the surface. I think there's an incredible sensitivity there, and a quiet, melancholy feeling overall. Hansen and other painters are all talking to each other across time. They’re sharing ways of seeing and feeling. And that conversation never really ends, does it?