Study for "The Dream – Paolo and Francesca" 1910

This is a drawing by Umberto Boccioni, made with pencil on paper. It's a study for "The Dream – Paolo and Francesca." Imagine Boccioni at work, rapidly sketching, trying to capture a fleeting dream. You can almost see the graphite dust swirling around him, each line a desperate attempt to pin down the ephemeral. The image is all movement and emotion, a jumble of hair and limbs, the drama unfolding. I can feel the raw energy and the urgency in these lines. Maybe he was thinking about love, loss, or the torment of unfulfilled desires. There is a sense of floating, like the figures are suspended, maybe drowning in a sea of emotion. Drawing feels very intuitive, like this. It's like a dance between the hand, the eye, and the heart. Each mark informs the next. We make these things, but they make us too. We all influence each other, all the time.