Studier af kvinde, der bærer vand. Portugal 1911

Othon Friesz made this study of a woman carrying water in Portugal with what looks like charcoal or ink, and it’s all about the energy of the line. See how the marks aren’t precious? It's like he's thinking out loud. The texture comes from the tooth of the paper, but mostly it's in the varying pressure of the strokes. Look at how he renders the folds of her dress, thick dark lines alternating with thin scratchy ones. What does it mean? Maybe nothing! But that contrast gives her form a kind of vibration, a presence. And the way he’s surrounded her with studies of faces and hands, pots and vessels, they’re all like echoes of her, variations on a theme. It’s similar to how Cézanne would approach a subject from multiple angles, trying to capture its essence through repetition and difference. Friesz is less about deconstruction and more about flow, but he makes me think about the relationship between seeing and knowing. Nothing is fixed, everything is in motion.