Kvindelig stående model, set fra ryggen 1916

This drawing, *Kvindelig stående model, set fra ryggen*, was made with what looks like charcoal on paper by J.A. Jerichau (II). The strokes are confident, almost like a dance, feeling around the figure without pinning it down. It’s a process of finding, not fixing. I love how the artist lets the charcoal do its thing – smudging, fading, suggesting rather than stating. Look at the back, how the spine is both there and not there, a ghost of a line. It’s like the artist is saying, "Here's a body, but it’s also just marks on paper." The texture is everything here; you can almost feel the grain of the paper, the softness of the charcoal. It reminds me of a more recent artist like Cecily Brown, who also uses the body as a jumping-off point for exploring the sheer joy of mark-making. In both cases, there is an understanding that art is not about perfection, but about embracing the messy, the unresolved, the endlessly fascinating process of seeing.