Seated Female Nude with Blue Stockings 1919 - 1924

Edvard Munch made this Seated Female Nude with Blue Stockings with watercolor, and the approach is all about letting the medium do its thing. The colors bleed and blend, creating a sense of fluidity, like a memory fading in and out. It’s as if he's capturing a fleeting moment, a whisper of an image. Look at how the blue stockings anchor the composition, a solid presence against the ethereal washes of yellow and pink. The blue isn't just a color; it's a mood, a weight, a grounding force. Notice how the paint pools and drips, revealing the hand of the artist, the tilt of the paper, the dance between control and chance. Munch and his process is echoed later in the work of Georg Baselitz, who also used the materiality of paint to convey emotion. Art is always an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth across time. And with a piece like this, Munch is inviting us to join in, to bring our own interpretations to the table, to find our own truths in the ambiguity.