Interior 1987

Jacob Collins painted this interior with what seems like great deliberation, carefully building up layers of oil paint. I can imagine him scrutinizing the scene before him and mixing colors on his palette to try and capture the muted tones of the room. The painting has a quiet stillness. You can see a table in the foreground, a vase of flowers, and through an open doorway, another room with a piano and various objects. The color palette is subdued, dominated by earthy browns, greens, and grays. The brushwork is soft and blended, giving the painting a hazy, dreamlike quality. It's like looking at a memory, a moment frozen in time. There's something almost melancholy about it. Painters have long been fascinated by interiors, using them as stages for human dramas, or as studies in light and form. Think of Vilhelm Hammershøi, for example. Collins is part of a long lineage, showing us the beauty and mystery of the everyday.