Female nude, reclining 1930

This line drawing of a reclining nude was made in 1930 by Richard Martin Werner. I'm guessing he used graphite, or maybe charcoal—something dry and kind of unforgiving. The lines are tentative, searching for a form. I know that feeling! It's that moment when you're trying to coax something into being, a kind of dialogue between what you see and what you feel. What was he looking at? How did his looking become this? The pose is classical, like a figure from a Renaissance painting, but the execution feels so modern. I see echoes of Schiele in the angularity, the vulnerability. But unlike Schiele's aggressive line, Werner's feels soft, almost hesitant. The body is there, but barely. It’s like he’s inviting us to complete the picture, to join him in the act of seeing and feeling. And that, to me, is what drawing is all about: a shared moment of observation and creation.