Self-Portrait 1904

Albert Marquet, sometime in the early 20th century, made this self-portrait presumably using oil paint. Look at how the colors aren't really blended, but rather laid down next to each other, creating this kind of pulsating surface. There's a real freshness to that, an honesty about how paintings are made. You can practically feel the give of the brush as Marquet applied those strokes. The ochre background kinda glows, doesn't it? It brings out the warmth in his skin tones. And check out the mustache, how it kinda dominates his face, but also how it's rendered with these simple, confident strokes. It’s like he’s saying, “This is me, take it or leave it.” There’s a touch of Vuillard here, that same commitment to the everyday, to finding beauty in the simplest of subjects. Painting is a process, an exchange, an ongoing conversation, right?