Komposition 1916

This small etching by J.A. Jerichau, made in Paris in 1916, hums with the energy of rapid marks. I imagine the artist, bent over the plate, scratching away with furious concentration. Look at the way the figures emerge, not as polished forms, but as clusters of lines, barely contained. It's like Jerichau is wrestling with the very idea of representation, pulling figures from the ether with raw, immediate gestures. He's working out his understanding of the world through a process of trial and error. I find myself wondering what Jerichau was thinking. Was he looking at Picasso? At Matisse? You can feel the echoes of cubism and early modernism in the fractured forms and spatial ambiguity. And just like those painters, Jerichau isn't just depicting a scene; he's inviting us to participate in the act of seeing. These artists keep the conversation going.