Meisje draagt een hond op een winderig bospad 1912

Nelly Spoor made this black ink drawing, *Meisje draagt een hond op een winderig bospad,* but when and where, we don’t exactly know. The drawing is all these tiny, tiny marks, like she was making a whole world out of little thoughts. The surface is built from lots of small hatching marks, a mass of linear detail. Look closely at that shoe lying on the ground. You can almost feel the wind buffeting it, as if it’s been abandoned in a hurry. The girl looks like she is struggling along this path. She seems weighed down but determined to get to her destination. The linear quality of the piece reminds me a bit of Aubrey Beardsley. Like Beardsley, Spoor embraces the playful, darker aspects of the imagination, reminding us that art can be a place where ambiguity and uncertainty are not just tolerated but celebrated.