Portret van Larense boerenvrouw genaamd Lysemeut 1916

Julie de Graag made this portrait of Lysemeut, a farmer's wife from Laren, in 1916. The drawing is formed of many tiny hatch marks that describe the light and shadow falling on her face. It's incredible to think of Julie bent over the plate, scraping away at the surface to slowly build this image of a woman. I imagine her capturing not just Lysemeut's physical likeness, but also a sense of her character, her resilience, and her connection to the land. It’s as if the artist is coaxing Lysemeut out from the darkness, line by painstaking line. You can really see how Julie uses the density and direction of the lines to suggest the forms beneath the skin. There's a real graphic quality to the work, but it never feels cold or mechanical, does it? I find that the work of other artists, like Paula Modersohn-Becker, seems to inform her practice here. Ultimately, painting, like drawing, is an act of conversation across time. We respond to what has come before, while simultaneously speaking to the future. And I love how Julie’s mark making really embodies that tension between precision and intuition, control and chance.