Girl 1900 - 1937

Eero Järnefelt made this drawing of a girl, we don’t know when, using what looks like a combination of graphite and coloured pencil. I’m really drawn to the tentative, searching quality of the marks. It’s like Järnefelt is feeling his way around the form, not trying to nail it, but instead allowing it to emerge through a process of looking and responding. The texture of the paper is a big part of this piece, the tooth of the paper grabs the graphite and coloured pencil, creating a broken, almost shimmering surface. Look at the way he’s used these parallel lines to describe the fabric of her dress. They’re not perfectly straight or evenly spaced, and that’s what makes them so compelling. It reminds me of the drawings of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another artist who wasn’t afraid to leave the evidence of her process visible in the finished work. Art is a conversation across time, an ongoing exchange of ideas and approaches.