Two Studies of a Reclining Man 1903

Wilhelm Lehmbruck made this drawing, Two Studies of a Reclining Man, with graphite on paper. Look at the marks describing these figures, how they vary from confident, dark lines, to something more tentative, almost rubbed out. There is a real economy of means. For me that’s where so much of the work lies, in the push and pull of the artist trying to work out the form, trying to get it right. I’m really drawn to the man in the upper half of the composition. He seems so casual, like he’s been caught unawares, in a vulnerable moment. The light is hitting his stomach and groin, in a very gentle way. It’s not hyper realistic, but the tonal modelling gives just enough information to feel the weight and volume of the figure. The more I look, the more I think of other artists like, say, Egon Schiele, who was also preoccupied with the human form, but with a very different intensity. In the end, all art is really about how we see and feel.