Staand naakt met rood haar 1902

Curator: I find myself quite taken by this portrait. Its stillness…it feels as if it holds a secret about to spill. Editor: You know, that’s a really lovely reading. It makes me think of this feeling I sometimes get around works that almost feel unfinished. They're suspended, potential unfulfilled. Anyway, what we're looking at is Edvard Munch’s "Standing Nude with Red Hair," created in 1902, apparently employing watercolour. There's a raw vulnerability to the piece that really grabs me. Curator: Yes, “Standing Nude with Red Hair," the vibrant hair and pale skin are quite striking, a potent combination often used to signal heightened emotion or unconventional sensuality. The almost unnatural length of the hair evokes Pre-Raphaelite associations with untamed beauty, a certain 'femme fatale' archetype... or could that simply be because those types interested Munch? Editor: I can see that connection, totally. It’s almost a reversal though, because whilst you talk of ‘untamed beauty’ I sense vulnerability and frailty; this might just be my disposition of course! Those expressive, almost mournful eyes, contrasted with the flowing hair—it does evoke a deep sense of melancholic yearning to me. Perhaps that Pre-Raphaelite 'femme fatale' is herself in despair... Curator: I think despair is close to the truth; you look at a work like this and ask yourself whether a man, viewing the ‘gaze’ as a reflection of his own desires, has stripped her bare emotionally long before she became unclothed. What do you make of the underpainting? Editor: Now that’s interesting; you know, Munch uses that so effectively. That glimpse beneath the surface really emphasises how art often involves layers and how nothing and nobody comes into being fully formed; we are processes, full of emerging emotion. In truth, this adds so much more depth and story. The vulnerability suddenly turns to defiant empowerment! Curator: Precisely! And isn't that the real beauty of engaging with such an artwork? It echoes those emotions we all possess within, our individual burdens, hopes, the whole kaleidoscope of the human condition. Editor: Definitely. I came to this thinking the subject was forlorn but that raw exposure has unlocked a powerful symbol of feminine resilience for me, and I love when art does that. It completely changes you!