Liggende vrouw 1908

James Ensor made this drawing of a reclining woman, using what looks like a very soft pencil. The lightness of the marks make the image feel like a fleeting thought, or a memory, captured lightly on paper. Look how the lines are almost hesitant, like he's feeling his way around the form. Notice the woman's hat, adorned with what might be flowers, and the way it contrasts with the empty hat at the bottom of the page, abandoned on the beach. The dress drapes around her, suggested with the barest of strokes, and the sea around her is marked with just a few horizontal lines. There’s a sense of openness, of air and light, that pervades the whole image, like when you’re trying to catch the essence of something, rather than the details. Ensor's work, particularly his later paintings, is known for its use of bold colors and grotesque figures, which is very different from the delicacy of this sketch, although I am reminded of the sketches of Manet, another artist who sought to capture the fleeting impressions of modern life. Perhaps art is an ongoing process of refining our perceptions, where clarity and ambiguity coexist in the same breath.