Seated Nude 1913

Magnus Enckell made this drawing, Seated Nude, in 1913, and it’s all about the touch of graphite on paper, a real testament to mark-making as a way of thinking. Looking at the textures, it’s all delicate lines, hatched and cross-hatched, building up shadows and form. You can almost feel the give and take of the artist’s hand as he coaxes the figure out of the page. There's no hiding here, the process is laid bare. See how the lines around the figure’s back are softer, more tentative, while the shading under the arm is darker, more assertive? That little patch of shadow tells us so much about weight, about presence. Enckell reminds me of someone like Paula Modersohn-Becker, not just in the subject matter, but in the way he uses line to explore the emotional weight of the body. It’s like he’s saying, hey, art is a conversation, and we’re all just adding our own little marks to the page.