The Artist's Mother 1915

Umberto Boccioni captured his mother in charcoal, graphite, and watercolor on paper. The angular lines, the shading, they’re all so present, like the scaffolding of an idea. What was he thinking, staring at his mother like that? Those deep, dark lines digging into the paper, trying to capture her essence, her weight. And the way those rosy watercolor spots sit on her cheeks, adding a subtle, intimate touch. There's a bit of Cézanne here, right? The way he breaks down form into planes, searching for something solid, something true. But Boccioni adds a layer of raw emotion, maybe a hint of rebellion. I imagine him wrestling with the image, trying to pin down something that keeps slipping away. That's the thing about painting, isn’t it? It’s a conversation, a struggle, a way of seeing that connects us all.