Prøveplade: Gammel kone med tørklæde, profil 1901

Frans Schwartz created this tiny etching of an old woman wearing a headscarf, with delicate lines scratched onto the plate, somewhere between the late 19th and early 20th century. I think about the way the artist might have had to hold his breath to make those marks just so, and the image slowly emerging as he worked and reworked the surface, wiping away excess ink, adjusting the pressure. It is a trial plate after all. I love the sense of quiet concentration it evokes, the way he coaxes the image out of the blank surface. The woman’s profile is simple and strong. The lines describing the fabric of her headscarf are so sensitive, almost like tiny hairs, and yet they give the material form and weight. It reminds me of other artists like Käthe Kollwitz, who found beauty and dignity in the faces of ordinary people, honoring them with focused, intimate portraits. Isn’t it wonderful how artists find inspiration in the world around them, and in each other’s work, too? They create a conversation through time. Each mark, each line, carries a story, a feeling, a way of seeing.