Post #4462394

Dinner: Leon Bakst, 1902. The dress and the hat are surprisingly precise silhouettes but the expanses are filled with long, dry brush-strokes, overlayered. The chairs and table setting show mastery of suggested form. Instead of carving out all of the detail photographically, he supplies subtle hints which enable us to visualise what he saw. The face looks unfinished but faces absorb our attention. I suspect that the token sketch of features is a device to avoid that distraction. He was a ballet designer. Virtuoso speed was his craft. #art #painting