Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was a representational painter, yet he painted so freely that many of his images are exaggerated, if not flat-out distorted. His Wikipedia entry is here and includes a number of examples of his work. I have posted about him as well.

San Francisco's Legion of Honor has Café Scene (c.1887) a small sketch-painting made in Paris. It interests me because, like many unfinished paintings, it offers some insight into how an artist goes about working.

In Boldini's case, it is sketchy indeed.

[Image]The painting: a cropped photo I took at the Legion of Honor. What was cropped was the frame plus a tiny bit of the painting.

[Image]Detail.