Arbejdende kvinde 1906

Albert Edelfelt made this watercolour drawing, Working Woman, sometime between 1870 and 1905. It’s a monochromatic piece, a study in blacks, greys and whites, and a real lesson in the art of working with a limited palette. There’s something about the texture here, the way the watercolor bleeds and pools, that feels so immediate, like a snapshot of a fleeting moment. You can almost feel the water soaking into the paper. The way Edelfelt uses these watery blacks and greys, it’s almost like he’s not just painting the figure, but the very air around her. There are no hard lines, everything just seems to flow and blend together. Look at the ground she is standing on, it feels like a gestural grounding. The circular form in the upper right is much softer, like a halo, and makes the overall piece float. It reminds me of some of Käthe Kollwitz’s lithographs, where she uses stark contrasts and bold lines to convey the weight of human suffering. In a similar way, Edelfelt uses this restricted palette to create an intimate, almost melancholic portrait. Is the working woman illuminated or swallowed up? We don’t know, and that’s the magic.