Naakte vrouw met spiegel en een weegschaal before 1916

This small watercolor on paper, "Naked Woman with Mirror and Scales" by Bernard Willem Wierink, is a shimmering balancing act. Imagine Wierink hunched over this tiny piece, carefully loading his brush with watery pigment. The woman stands blindfolded between orange curtains, holding aloft what looks like a planet. She's both classical and strange, monumental yet intimate. I imagine Wierink thinking about justice, beauty, and the weight of the world when he made this. The surface is so delicate, the marks so tentative, it’s as though the image is still forming itself. There's something about the fluidity of watercolor that lends itself to this kind of searching. It’s like he’s feeling his way through the subject, letting the water and pigment lead him. It reminds me of the way Symbolist painters used mythological figures to explore deeper psychological themes. It’s this kind of conversation across time and mediums that keeps art alive.