I lifted the picture and jiggled the wire of the big gilt frame till the picture hung straight, then stood back to assess the effect. It really was a beautiful painting. The style, Rosalie told me, was called “pointillism,” a painstaking refinement on impressionism, with every brushstroke forming a round dot, like confetti. A painter would have to be a masochist to adopt such a style, which probably accounts for the rarity of these pointillist works. From across the room, the individual daubs of pigment merged to form the nude body of a young woman. She stood with her back to the viewer, peering over her shoulder. The sun struck her from the left, bathing that side in dappled light. The pigments—small, perfect dots of pink, orange, and gold—coalesced to a shimmering opal. The right side, away from the sun, was done in blue, green, and purple. The two shadings blended to an indeterminate shadow down the middle of the spine. Coppery hair, bright as the sun, was twisted into a knot, with tendrils falling along the legendary face of Rosalie Hart.
What do You think about The Polka Dot Nude (1989)?
