Figurkomposition med badende og dansende kvinder. 1907 - 1910

This is Figurkomposition med badende og dansende kvinder, a drawing by Othon Friesz, somewhere in time, on paper. You can see how he’s working out the composition as he goes, with lines all over the place, searching for the forms. It's like he's wrestling with the image, trying to pin it down. The ink is dry and scratchy, giving the whole scene a sense of urgency, of bodies in motion. Look at the lines around the figures, they're not just outlines, they're like energy fields, capturing the movement and rhythm of the dance. There's a freedom and looseness to it. The marks are raw and immediate. Friesz isn’t trying to hide the process. He’s showing us the thinking, the feeling, the doing. It reminds me a little of Matisse's drawings, that same love of line and movement. But where Matisse is elegant and refined, Friesz is rougher, more primal. It's a reminder that art is never finished, just abandoned.