Portret van mevrouw W.M. Broeksmit-van Peski 1885 - 1931

This small etching of a woman reading was made by Frederika Henriëtte Broeksmit. Look at the matrix of dry lines scratched into the plate, each one accumulating the ink that prints as a delicate trace of a line! The sitter, in her reverie, is absorbed in the act of reading. I can imagine Broeksmit hunched over the plate, scratching away, line after line, to construct this image of quiet contemplation. The marks almost disappear into the paper; so pale that she is almost fading away. Was she thinking about the fragility of life? Or the importance of the life of the mind? It's hard to say, but I'm sure she was thinking about something! This quiet work reminds me of other artists who explore domestic space in a subjective, emotional way. Like Vuillard, or Bonnard, maybe she, too, was interested in using a tonal palette to capture fleeting moments. Artists are always looking to each other, taking inspiration and pushing things forward!