Männlicher Rückenakt 1908

This drawing of a male nude from behind is by Franz von Stuck. It’s rendered in charcoal, I think, with these smudgy, atmospheric marks. It gives me the feeling that Stuck was really in the zone, responding intuitively to the figure, to the texture of the paper, and the grain of the charcoal. Look at how the light seems to emerge from the surface. Notice the dark, almost velvety shadows around the shoulder blades and down the spine, contrasted with the lighter, smudged areas that suggest the curve of the muscles. It's like the body is sculpted from light and shadow. And then, that hand reaching out, almost dissolving into the background! You could compare this to the work of someone like Rodin. But where Rodin is all about mass and volume, Stuck is more about gesture, the fleeting moment. It’s a reminder that art is really an ongoing conversation, where artists build upon, and respond to, one another’s ideas, and leave plenty of room for us to find our own connections.