The Daydreamer (Gerti Schiele) 1911

Here we have Egon Schiele's, The Daydreamer, Gerti Schiele, made with watercolour in a private collection. What strikes me is the process, how the washes of color define the form with a simple, understated confidence. You can see where he lets the watercolour do its thing, bleeding and mingling on the paper, it's like he's in conversation with the medium, not trying to control it too much. It is really all about the materiality: the texture of the paper shining through the transparent washes, the way the colours pool and layer, creating depth and luminosity. And these aren’t blended colours! Look at those blocks of red and purple on her shawl, they're sitting together, vibrating, full of life, which tells me he understood the way colour can create form, and emotional weight. This way of working reminds me of other artists like Alice Neel, who used the same kind of expressionistic line and color to dig beneath the surface of appearances.