Young Man on a Riverbank 1902

Umberto Boccioni made this drawing called ‘Young Man on a Riverbank’ with pencil, and maybe some charcoal. I love how the composition shows a figure turned away from us, looking out, in contemplation. The marks are blended softly, which gives it a hazy, dreamlike quality. The river is rendered as an almost flat space, contrasting with the more textured application used on the figure. Look at the back of the young man’s jacket: the way the charcoal sits on the page has a real, physical presence. It is a lovely contrast with the softness of the river. There’s a bit of Whistler in its melancholy tone, and that sort of hazy removal from the grittiness of real life. For me, the beauty of this piece is about atmosphere, and how Boccioni manages to create that mood through the application of tone in a limited palette of earthy browns.