Lena in interieur 1917

Theo van Doesburg made ‘Lena in Interieur’ with watercolor, which gives it a dreamy, ethereal quality. It's like he's not just depicting a scene, but also capturing a feeling, a mood. The way he uses these thin washes of color, letting them bleed and blend into one another, it's all about the process. You can almost see him thinking, experimenting, as he builds up the image layer by layer. The paint is so fluid, so transparent, that it feels like the image is emerging from the paper itself. Look at the way he renders the tie of the central figure, these dark watery marks, they are both abstract and figurative at the same time. It makes me think of other painters like Francis Picabia, who were also playing with abstraction and representation, pushing the boundaries of what a painting could be. Ultimately, it’s this sense of openness, of possibility, that makes van Doesburg’s work so compelling.