Schwangere Frau mit Kind auf dem Arm 1912

This is Egon Schiele’s ‘Pregnant Woman with Child on her Arm,’ drawn with pencil and watercolour. Imagine Schiele, restless, making marks to map the swelling form of a pregnant woman, the additional weight of a child. He’s feeling for the line, looking for a way to capture the shift of weight and balance. I sympathize with him, trying to get it down, the way those simple tools make the complex easy: just a line, just a little pink there. He's all about the line, isn’t he? Thin lines define the figures, searching and shaky, yet confident. Look at the curve of her belly, the way it pulls forward. What was he thinking when he made this? Is it about vulnerability, strength, or something else entirely? The colours are faint, like a memory: a little blush on the cheeks, the knee, the breast. Schiele, like all artists, was in conversation with artists across time. This work reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who was also interested in the inner life of women and children. Artists make art, make marks, keep the conversation going.