Female portrait 1940

This drawing of a woman's face, by Hermann Lismann, is made with pencil or charcoal on paper. The thing that catches my eye is the way Lismann works with tone. It's subtle, almost like he's breathing the shadows onto the paper. Look at the side of her face – that soft gradient makes her feel present, but also slightly ethereal. The lines are so economical, but they carry so much information, you know? I am thinking about how the light is rendered in a tonal manner. And those eyes, slightly downturned. There is a melancholy to her gaze, a kind of quiet knowing that reminds me of some of those early portraits by Paula Modersohn-Becker. The way the background is so subtly suggested makes me think of how art is an ongoing conversation across time, where artists borrow and transform what they see. It makes the artwork feel honest, like a real person. A conversation, just for a moment.