Woman Leaning on a Chair (The Artist's Sister) 1909

This small drawing of a woman leaning on a chair was made by Umberto Boccioni, but we don't know when exactly. The drawing is all about process, a cascade of etched marks laying down tone and structure. What interests me most here is the mark-making – the visible struggle to find the form of the woman and the chair. Look at the way the lines vibrate and repeat, a thicket of cross-hatching, describing the solid form of the chair. The way the lines vary in weight creates a sense of depth, and the image feels like it's about to move. The lines are confident and searching, almost as if they're trying to capture the essence of the sitter. Boccioni's dynamic mark-making reminds me a little bit of Rodin's drawings, though the woman in this image feels less monumental, somehow more human. In the end, art is really just a conversation, a dance between different ways of seeing and feeling. And sometimes, it's just about capturing a fleeting moment, a gesture, a mood.