This enchanting painting is difficult to appreciate on a small scale. It’s the product of many small sketches Long made as he observed the market’s bustle—vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables, the bus coming into town from the hills, street vendors hawking their wares. Can you hear the mariachis?
Scroll down for closeups. Everywhere you look, small scenarios are playing out.
In the upper left of this detail is the artist’s wife Anne Long (blue dress) with her friend, as they talk with the chair vendor. There’s so much to see in just this one section of the painting—the flower boy, the broom man, friends greeting and chatting, the man selling his pig. Both the chair vendor and the pig vendor come together again in another painting which you’ll see soon.
