Ma Grande-mére Mourante, Szeged, Hungary 1922 - 1923

Theodore Milton Fried made this charcoal drawing of his dying grandmother in 1922 in Szeged, Hungary. You can see how he's built up the image with these tight, almost frantic, scribbled lines. It's like he’s trying to capture something that’s slipping away, not just her likeness, but the very essence of her presence. Look at the way the charcoal is applied – sometimes dense and dark, creating deep shadows, other times light and feathery, almost like a whisper. The marks around her head seem to lift her up, but they also have an airy quality, like a halo or a shroud. Notice the weight of the marks around her breast; here, Fried has worked the charcoal with his finger, smudging and softening the form. For me, the beauty of this piece lies in its incompleteness. It reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz’s drawings of grief and loss, where the raw immediacy of the mark becomes a powerful expression of human emotion. This drawing feels like an intimate glimpse into a deeply personal moment, a fragile and tender farewell.