Mandlig model, siddende med bagudstrakte arme 1901 - 1905

Oluf Hartmann made this drawing of a male model with charcoal, probably in a studio setting, at the beginning of the twentieth century. It looks like he's really feeling out the form, not just drawing what he sees, but thinking through the volumes. The shading is heavy, giving the figure a sculptural quality, but it's also smudged in places, making it hard to tell exactly where the light is coming from. See how the charcoal is thick and dark around the edges of the figure, but then it thins out and almost disappears in the center? It makes the figure feel both solid and ethereal, like it's emerging from the shadows. Looking at the way he's handled the charcoal, reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, who also used the medium to convey a sense of weight and emotion. Both artists were exploring the human form with incredible nuance and ambiguity.