The Long Long Love Affair

A human figure and a horse-like companion sit closely together, their bodies intertwined and their expressions suspended between affection and uncertainty. The title stretches that closeness across an imagined history, but the painting keeps the relationship wonderfully unresolved. Barbier includes the work in her quarantine series, where humor and emotional vulnerability often coexist. Its tenderness comes from the awkwardness: attachment is given a form that is intimate, improbable and difficult to separate into neat parts.