Franzi and Her Sister in a Hammock 1910

Max Pechstein made this drawing of Franzi and her sister in a hammock with crayon and ink. He’s captured a moment in time, but also the ongoing, unfolding process of observation. The colours are so straightforward; brown paper, red lips, blue skirt. Each decision is a new layer of communication. There’s this feeling of intimacy, like he's sketching a memory as much as what's in front of him. I keep coming back to these bold, almost cartoonish outlines of the figures set against the raw cardboard ground. The red of the lips echoes in the shapes on the ground; it’s like a punctuation mark, tying the composition together. It reminds me a little of Gauguin, but with a more direct, less romantic approach. Art isn't about capturing reality, but about constructing our own version of it.