Open Window 1919

Grace Cossington Smith made this painting, Open Window, with oil on canvas. Look at how she builds up the image with all these little strokes of paint, a mosaic of color where each dab feels so deliberate and considered. The surface has this lovely, tactile quality, almost like you could reach out and feel the individual brushstrokes. The paint isn't overworked but still so present, giving the whole scene a kind of lively, breathing energy. There's this little patch of sunlight on the floor, made up of warm yellows and oranges, that really draws the eye. It’s like she’s captured a fleeting moment of light and made it solid. Cossington Smith reminds me a bit of Bonnard, in the way she uses color to evoke a mood and capture the feeling of a particular time and place. Art isn't about fixed meanings but about the exchange of ideas, across time and between artists.