Lesende Frau im Profil nach rechts 1914

Hermann Lismann made this work with ink. It's an energetic sketch of a woman reading in profile. I think that the artist has caught her in a moment of total absorption, totally engrossed in her book, and shut off from the world around her. You can tell she's really into it because of the marks around the face, which are looser, but then the hands holding the book are tightly rendered. I feel like I know her: she's so focused on the world of the book. There’s something about the quick, expressive lines that captures the fleeting nature of the moment, it's not too precise and that's what I like. You can feel how Lismann tried to convey the way she is leaning into the story, and how that interest has become a part of the composition.