Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1928

Willem van Konijnenburg made this portrait of an unknown woman using etching, and I can just imagine the delicate scratching away at the metal, pulling back the dark ink to let the light shine through. I wonder, was it the artist’s intention to portray the woman or a feeling? Her hair, like the wind blowing through it, seems to be a metaphor for something—freedom, perhaps? Or maybe she's trapped in a dark space? The woman's face is so serene; her gaze is calm. But the marks around her, oh, they are so turbulent. I can see him working, moving back and forth between the light and shadow, maybe searching for something. I think about other artists, like Käthe Kollwitz, who used the etching process to dig deep into the human condition. It's like they’re all in conversation across time, these artists, wrestling with the same old demons but finding something new to say. And there it is: the artist, working, searching, trying to make sense of it all.