Hoofd van een vrouw 1901

This is Hans Thoma’s 'Hoofd van een vrouw', it's an etching, but we don't know exactly when he made it. I love the way he’s built up this image with so many tiny marks. You can really see the labour in the piece, the way he’s committed to the process of building up the image dot by dot, line by line. If you look closely, you can see the way the hatching varies in density to create areas of light and shadow. Notice the details in her face, the way the light catches her cheek and the subtle shadow under her nose. There's a beautiful, almost dreamlike quality to the landscape behind her, and the way it blurs the line between reality and imagination. I like how the flowers at the bottom right are rendered with a similar density of marks as her face and hair. It creates a sense of visual unity across the image. Thoma's work reminds me a little bit of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another German artist who was working around the same time. They both had this incredible sensitivity to the human form and a real talent for capturing the inner lives of their subjects.