Portrætstudie af malerinden Ellen Olrik, profil mod venstre 1926 - 1930

Edvard Weie made this portrait study of the painter Ellen Olrik with pencil on paper. It’s such a quick sketch, you can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the page, trying to capture the essence of his subject. I can picture Weie, rapidly filling in the shadow with these emphatic marks. It makes me wonder, was he trying to get a likeness, or was he more interested in the shapes and forms he saw? I bet he wasn’t thinking about a finished portrait at all. Maybe he was just playing around, exploring the possibilities of line and tone. You can see the way he’s built up the image, layer upon layer, with each stroke adding to the overall effect. It's like he's building a sculpture out of lines, finding the form through the act of drawing itself. It reminds me of how all artists are just having a conversation, responding to one another's marks across time. It’s a reminder that painting is a process of discovery, not just a representation of what’s already there.