Naakte vrouw liggend op bed 1920

Simon Moulijn made this lithograph on paper of a nude woman lying on a bed, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Look at the way he's worked the lithographic crayon, and imagine him drawing and shading, using a fine point to render the smooth gradations of tone on her body, and then a broader, flatter edge to create that dark, velvety background. I wonder if Moulijn was thinking about the long history of reclining nudes in art history as he made this image. Maybe Titian’s Venus of Urbino or Goya's Naked Maja came to mind. Notice, too, how much attention he gave to the crumpled sheets. The fabric seems to both reveal and conceal the body, adding to the overall sensuality of the scene. And even though the color palette is quite restrained—limited to blacks, whites, and grays—there's a surprising range of textures and tones. It's as if Moulijn is reminding us that simplicity can sometimes be the most powerful way to communicate feeling. The conversation between artists is ongoing. We look, consider, and translate into our own practices.