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

Umberto Boccioni made this drawing of his sister with pencil on paper. Look at the swift, assured lines that capture his sister leaning wearily against a chair; it feels both intimate and immediate, right? I imagine Boccioni, pencil in hand, circling his sister, trying to seize her likeness from different angles. Do you get the sense that he's trying to capture her essence or just nail the pose? See how the hatching defines the volume of the chair? He’s making it vibrate, which is totally in line with his Futurist interest in movement and energy. But here, in this quiet study, Boccioni shows us his tender side, a glimpse of the domestic. I like to think about how artists work things out, riffing off each other, borrowing ideas across time. Drawing, like painting, becomes a conversation between the artist, their subject, and us, the viewers. It’s all about seeing, feeling, and figuring things out together.