Sitzende Frau im Profil, Detail 

Otto Scholderer made this pencil sketch of a seated woman. The motif of a person seated in contemplation can be traced back through art history. Consider its presence in depictions of philosophers, saints, and even secular portraits. The way she rests her arm and hand mirrors the gesture of Melancholia, seen in Dürer's engraving. Here, the woman's posture seems to suggest a mood of introspection, or perhaps even world-weariness. This posture evokes a deep sense of pensiveness. We see this pose repeated across various mediums and eras. Consider Rodin’s "The Thinker," or even ancient depictions of the Buddha in meditation. This seemingly simple posture taps into something fundamental about human consciousness, our capacity for reflection and our shared experience of existence. It persists, not merely as a visual echo, but as a recurrent expression of our inner states.