La Poilue 1916

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen made this drawing, "La Poilue," with graphite, and the image emerges from a blizzard of marks. It’s all about process; you can feel Steinlen thinking through the image, line by line. The graphite is like a swarm of tiny gestures, each one a little pulse of energy. Look at the way he renders the figure's skirt, a flurry of lines that somehow create volume and movement. It's not about perfection but about the energy of the hand, the feeling of the moment. The texture isn't smooth or polished, but raw and immediate, like a sketch from life that wants to capture something essential about her stance, her energy, a symbol of liberation, maybe? There’s something about the directness of his work that reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, especially in its social awareness and empathetic portrayal of human figures. Both use a kind of pared-down visual language. This piece embraces ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own interpretations to it.