Studieblad med mandsportræt og Atlasfigur 1907

Karl Isakson made this study sheet of a man's portrait and Atlas figure with graphite on paper. You can really see the artist working through his ideas here, the marks are so raw and searching. The scribbled lines that make up the figures have a real urgency to them. I love the way he's captured the weight of the world, or at least the orb, on Atlas's shoulders. There's this incredible tension between the delicacy of the lines and the sheer mass they're trying to describe. Look how the head of Atlas is almost lost beneath the globe. It reminds me of some of Rodin's less finished drawings, there is a similar interest in the body, in its musculature and the way it strains under pressure. You can see this in the smaller figure below too. It shows us how art isn't about perfect representations, but about the messy, beautiful process of trying to capture something real.