Hoofd van een vrouw 1913

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this head of a woman with drypoint, and it’s all about the process. You can see the marks so clearly. It's like Schelfhout is thinking through the form as he works. The lines aren't just descriptive, they're constructive. Take a look at the nose. It's built from these hatched lines that give it volume and a strange kind of presence. The whole image is a play of light and shadow, not soft and blended but sharp and graphic. There’s a real angularity to the piece. I'm reminded a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, someone else who knew how to make a black line sing. But where Kollwitz is all sorrow and social conscience, Schelfhout feels more like he's wrestling with the possibilities of the medium itself. It’s like the image is less about the head of a woman, and more about how to make a head.