Studie af gående kone med brændeknippe 1905 - 1908

This is a study of a walking woman with a bundle of firewood by Othon Friesz. I love how Friesz uses line here to suggest movement and weight. It’s all about the process, the gesture of the hand moving across the paper. You can almost feel him searching for the form, those tentative lines building up to create a sense of volume and depth. Look at the way the lines thicken and thin as they describe the figure, creating a rhythm that’s both dynamic and grounded. The physicality of the medium is really evident: you can almost see the charcoal crumbling as it meets the page. Notice the dark, almost scribbled lines that make up the firewood, contrasting with the more delicate lines of the woman's body. It’s like he’s capturing not just the image, but the energy of the scene, the weight of the wood and the effort of carrying it. Friesz was a contemporary of Matisse and Derain, and you can see a shared interest in expressive line and simplified forms. But Friesz brings something all his own, a kind of raw intensity, which reminds me of the drawings of Van Gogh. Art’s just one long conversation, right?