Weiblicher Akt, an der Wand stehend 1934

Richard Martin Werner made this pencil drawing of a female nude in 1931. Look at how Werner uses hatching to describe the form – short, parallel lines that build up tone and create a sense of volume. It’s a classic technique, almost academic, but there’s something vulnerable about the figure that pulls you in. The drawing is all about the surface of the paper. The pencil is soft, smudging into the page, creating a hazy, almost dreamlike effect. The lines are tentative, searching, as if Werner is feeling his way around the form. Notice the way he renders the shadow on the wall behind the figure, a dense thicket of lines that contrasts with the relative lightness of the body. It gives the figure a sense of depth, as if she’s emerging from the shadows. Werner reminds me of other early 20th Century artists who focused on the body such as Schiele. There's something so raw and intimate about this work; a fleeting moment captured on paper.