Prøveplade: Barnehoved i profil 1901

Frans Schwartz created this etching, 'Prøveplade: Barnehoved i profil,' probably at the end of the 19th century with a metal plate and acid. Can you imagine Schwartz working away at the plate, scratching lines to capture the curve of a child’s head? It’s like he's coaxing the image into existence through a kind of slow, deliberate dance. There is a tenderness in the way he renders the soft, rounded features of the child. I imagine him observing the kid, maybe his own child, trying to understand how light and shadow play across such a young face. I think about other artists who were drawn to similar subjects—Käthe Kollwitz, for example, with her poignant depictions of children, or Paula Modersohn-Becker, with her intimate portraits of motherhood. It’s like they’re all part of this big, ongoing conversation. Ultimately, this little etching isn’t just a portrait, it’s a meditation on seeing and being, on capturing a fleeting moment in time.