Repose (Ruhende vom Rücken) 1913

Wilhelm Lehmbruck made this etching called *Repose* in the early 20th century. It's a simple image: a reclining nude seen from the back, rendered in delicate lines and subtle shading. I'm thinking about how Lehmbruck might have felt, bent over the metal plate, carefully incising those lines. Was he trying to capture the perfect curve of the spine, the soft roundness of the hip? Or was he more interested in the way the light played across the surface of the skin? The etched line reminds me of some of Matisse's line drawings. The real magic of etching is that it can capture a fleeting moment. It's like a whispered secret, a reminder that even in stillness, there is always movement, always life. Like a conversation between artists, across time and space.