Pianospelend meisje 1870 - 1910

This is Bramine Hubrecht’s “Pianospelend Meisje”, made with etching. The immediate impression is one of intimacy, achieved through a tonal range of blacks and grays. The subject is captured in profile; she is cropped closely and set slightly off-center in the frame. Hubrecht has chosen a moment of intense concentration. The girl's gaze is fixed downward toward her hands. The artist’s formal decision to obscure the girl’s eyes creates an ambiguity. We, the viewers, can only guess at what she might be thinking and feeling. The composition creates a spatial compression which is further emphasized through the use of hatching to define tonal variations. The vertical lines formed by the window in the background act as a structural element of the composition, reinforcing a sense of enclosure. Ultimately, the power of this etching resides in its ability to evoke a mood that is both tender and subtly melancholic, asking us to consider the silent inner world of its subject.