Portret van Nel Wouters, de krant lezend 1911

Rik Wouters made this etching of his wife, Nel, sometime between 1900 and 1916. He has worked into the plate with lots of small marks to build the image, and I can imagine him going back again and again, each time layering a few more lines to describe his subject. I wonder what it was like for Wouters to observe his wife in these quiet moments. Nel, caught up in reading, probably unaware of being watched, the artist registering the everyday reality of her posture and concentration. The dark, concentrated marks build up a feeling of cosy domesticity. There is a real sense of life in the lines that make up the fabric of her dress and the folds of the newspaper. And I love how this image is part of a much wider conversation, how artists notice and respond to each other across time, taking inspiration and sparking their own creativity. Ultimately, it’s about embracing the ambiguity of mark making, knowing that one person's painting or print can mean so many different things to different people.