Femme Nu Assise 1914

This nude by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen is barely there, a whisper of pigment on paper. Look at the way it hangs back, unfinished. What was Steinlen thinking? I feel like the colour here is doing so much of the work – that soft sepia, the wash of diluted brown ink, so tender, so faint. It's almost like an antique photograph, faded with time and light. The figure emerges hesitantly, a form caught in the act of becoming. The hand is everything, right? It almost dematerializes in the whiteness of the paper. Artists are always in conversation with each other, cross-talking across centuries. Steinlen’s process reminds me of Degas, the way he built up images from memory. Ultimately, the image embodies openness, ambiguity, and multiple possibilities.