Studie van een vrouw, rugfiguur 1919

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita made this study of a woman, seen from the back, in pencil. It's all about mark-making, that dance between the artist's hand and the paper. The colour is understated, a symphony of greys. Look at the texture! You can almost feel the grain of the pencil on the page. It’s like he’s building up this woman from the ground up, stroke by stroke. The shading, especially around the hair, is a marvel. It’s not just about light and shadow, it's about mood. There's this patch of darker lines right behind her head, and it makes me think about unseen thoughts, the inner life. The pencil is so immediate, so honest. It reminds me a little of Käthe Kollwitz, that same raw honesty, that same commitment to the human figure. Art isn’t about perfect answers, it’s about the conversation. It's about keeping the questions alive.