Bird Girl, Sonia Gramatté (Vogelmädchen, Sonia Gramatté) Possibly 1922

Walter Gramatté made this print, Bird Girl, with etching, a medium where the process really sings out. The whole thing's bathed in this dreamy blue, a world seen through indigo-tinted glasses. Look how Gramatté coaxes textures out of the metal. See the way the lines create this almost feathered effect around the figure's shoulders and head? It's like she's mid-transformation, caught between girl and bird. The face is really something – those shadowed eyes, the delicate lines suggesting bone structure. It’s all so fragile, so ephemeral, like a memory fading at the edges. That single color unifies everything, turns it into a kind of melancholic reverie. Maybe it's just me, but I see echoes of Paula Modersohn-Becker in this. That same raw, vulnerable humanity, laid bare for all to see. It reminds me that art is just an ongoing conversation, across time and space.