This beautifully economical portrait of Rosalia [1] comes from the German period. She's sitting in a dream, completely unaware of any eyes on her. He's caught her in this private moment, not intentionally I expect, but it is identifiable that he was painting his self-portrait in an idle moment.
My mother often said if he had nothing else to paint, he’d paint himself. He wasn't vain particularly, though he did look quite dashing. He never went out without a little sketchbook in his pocket, because he was always wanting to record what he saw. And so, here, he was painting a rather uninteresting portrait of himself on the primed, right side of the canvas and then saw his wife and he obviously quickly turned the painting over, and sideways, so that it's horizontal, and made this wonderful portrait on the unprimed canvas, with the tiniest dab of paint picking out her spectacles. It's so light, so tender, and so tranquil. It's my favourite picture of his.
The Staircase and Hallway
Rosalia Pasternak
Make sure your volume is on
From this period in Germany is this beautiful portrait of Rosalia, his wife. She's sitting in a dream thinking about something, completely unaware of any eyes on her. He's caught her in this private moment, not intentionally I expect, but it's identifiable that he was painting his self-portrait in an idle moment. My mother said if he had nothing else to paint, he would paint himself. He wasn't vain particularly, though he did look quite dashing, but he was painting something because he wanted to be recording things. And so he was painting a portrait of himself on the right side of the canvas and then saw his wife and he obviously just quickly turned the oil painting sideways and reversed it so that it's horizontal and made this wonderful portrait of his wife, totally intimate with the tiniest dab of paint picking out her spectacles. It's so light, it's so intimate, and it's so tranquil. It's my favourite picture of his.
