Liggende vrouw met gitaar 1915

Reijer Stolk made this etching, Liggende vrouw met gitaar, at an unknown date. It’s all scratchy lines and smudgy tones, like a dream you can almost remember. Imagine Stolk hunched over the plate, dragging his tool to create these marks, a whole world materializing under his hand. What was he thinking as he made each stroke? Maybe he felt a kinship with the woman, a fellow artist in repose, or maybe he just liked the way the light fell on the guitar. I find myself drawn to the way the lines curve and flow to suggest the shape of the woman’s body and the swell of the instrument, how he creates a sense of depth and shadow. It’s like he’s not just depicting a scene but capturing a feeling, a mood, an atmosphere. You know, this reminds me of some of Paula Modersohn-Becker's early portraits, which also had this raw, intimate quality. It feels like artists are always riffing on each other, finding new ways to see and express the world.