Portrait of a blond girl 1901

Albrecht Anker made this portrait of a blond girl with oil on canvas. It's like he's trying to catch a fleeting moment, something real, but also just out of reach. Look at how Anker builds the girl’s hair, those blond curls, with such visible strokes. You can almost feel the brush dancing across the canvas, a kind of back and forth, building up texture and light. The paint is applied in layers, almost like he’s sculpting with color, and it gives her hair this incredible depth. And then there’s her gaze, a world of thoughts behind those eyes. It reminds me a bit of those early portraits by Alice Neel, a sort of tender observation. Both artists seem to say that there is no one way to see anything, ambiguity is part of the deal.