Seated Nude 1919

Wyndham Lewis's watercolor, "Seated Nude," features thin washes of earth tones and delicate linear contours. I imagine Lewis, leaning over the paper, figuring out just how much to let the ochre and sienna bleed. See how the pigment pools and settles, defining the figure's form with soft gradations of color, almost like a memory of a body? The strokes feel tentative, as if the body is emerging from the paper itself. It's interesting that Lewis, known for his hard-edged, Vorticist aesthetic, could also work with such sensitivity. The piece shows the artist's range. It reminds me that artists contain multitudes, always experimenting and pushing against the constraints of style. Lewis's "Seated Nude" reminds us that the act of painting is about seeing, feeling, and thinking through the body.