La Parisienne (3) 1902

Jacques Villon made this etching of a woman in a chair, called La Parisienne, and it feels like a ghost of an image. It's all in shades of pale orange, like sepia-toned memory. Look at the way Villon uses line here. It’s not about describing exactly what's there, but more about feeling around the edges of the form. The lines are so delicate, they barely hold the image together. See how the chair seems to dissolve into the background? The woman’s face, caught in profile, is so lightly rendered, it feels like she might disappear if you look away for too long. It reminds me a bit of some of Matisse's etchings. There's a similar sense of searching for form with minimal means. But Villon has his own thing going on here. The ambiguity is key. It’s not about capturing a specific moment, but more about evoking a mood, a feeling, a sense of fleeting beauty.