Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen (detail), by Frans Hals c. 1638
The picture that wasn't there
by Ian Garrick Mason — September 24, 2020
Berger's opening line... "Stories arrive in the head in order to be told. Sometimes paintings do the same."
Blank space for an image - misprint?
Can't find the picture online. Reclining nudes by many others...
Yet can be visualized. Berger's description is vivid, forceful. He compares the nude to Manet (?), Rembrandt — uncovering the soul of the age in which Hals worked.
Finally, the mystery resolves.
There was no such picture. It was a thought experiment. Announced most subtly.
Writing about a painting that never existed as a way of getting to the heart of a painter that did.