J.F. Willumsen 1908

Peder Severin Krøyer captured J.F. Willumsen in oil on canvas on a day in January 1903. Look at those gestural marks, the blues, blacks, and pinks all dancing together! You can almost imagine Krøyer at work, shifting and adjusting, letting intuition guide the brush. I wonder what it was like for him to create this? The paint isn’t too thick, but it sits just right. See how the light catches the strokes around the face, how they define the planes and capture the light in his hair? The way he painted the eye, for example, suggests so much feeling. It's a conversation between artists, a way of seeing and responding to another's creative energy. Krøyer reminds us that painting is this embodied expression, and that there is space for so many interpretations within.