Zittende naakte vrouw met een hoed 1906 - 1945

Here’s Reijer Stolk's "Zittende naakte vrouw met een hoed", or "Seated Nude Woman with a Hat." Look at that network of pencil lines conjuring form from the void! I imagine Stolk in a room, rapidly sketching, trying to capture a fleeting sense of presence. There’s a raw energy to the drawing, a vulnerability too, in its open, searching lines. A beautiful kind of incompleteness emerges, where the figure seems to be both present and dissolving into the paper. I imagine Stolk wanted to show a body in motion, its weight shifting, its volumes unfolding. It makes me think about the early modernists like Matisse and Picasso, artists who were also grappling with how to depict the human form in new ways. It’s like Stolk is in conversation with them, trying out different ideas, pushing the boundaries of representation and looking for new ways to create form.