De grootmoeder, portret tot op de schouders 1878 - 1940

This drawing of his grandmother, made by Édouard Vuillard, is pure process. The lines are searching, like Vuillard is feeling his way around her face. It’s so immediate, you can almost see the artist’s hand moving across the page. Look at the way the lines pile up around her eyes and mouth, creating depth and shadow with just a few strokes. It's not so much about perfect representation as it is about capturing a feeling, an essence. The starkness of the graphite on paper emphasizes the raw, unfiltered quality of the work. The marks are transparent, tentative. Each line seems to record a fleeting moment of perception. The overall effect is one of intimacy and vulnerability, as if we are witnessing a private moment between artist and subject. Thinking about the way Picasso sketched and drew, often finding new ways of seeing through a constantly evolving line, helps me understand this work as an important precursor in a long lineage. Ultimately, I’m reminded that art is about conversation, about seeing and feeling and then daring to put something down on paper.