Portrait of Maria van Rysselberghe 1919

This is Theo van Rysselberghe’s portrait of Maria van Rysselberghe. Look at that sepia-toned pencil, almost charcoal-like, creating a soft, almost dreamlike vision. I wonder about that moment, the artist sitting across from the sitter in a quiet room, observing her, trying to capture her essence. I imagine him noticing the way the light fell across her face, the subtle lines around her eyes telling a story. See the way she’s holding her chin, so poised and thoughtful? Van Rysselberghe really catches her mood, she looks pensive, almost melancholic. I can see echoes of other portraitists like James Whistler in this work. There’s a subtlety and restraint that feels very connected to that late 19th-century sensibility. It reminds me that artists are always talking to each other across time, picking up on each other’s ideas, responding to the questions that came before. It’s an ongoing conversation through mark-making and looking.