Jonge vrouw op een steen in de branding before 1912

Léon Lowenberg created this print of a woman on a stone in the surf. It’s all in these warm sepia tones, like an old photograph, but with the hazy atmosphere of an Impressionist painting. Look closely, and you can see it's not about smooth perfection; it's all about the marks. The water is rendered with these short, flickering lines, almost like the reflections are dancing. And then there's the woman's dress, a cascade of strokes that suggest its delicate fabric, caught by the sea breeze. The texture of the paper peeks through in places, adding to that sense of transience. I’m drawn to the way Lowenberg used those marks to evoke the feeling of a fleeting moment, the way the light hits the water. It reminds me a bit of Whistler’s etchings, where the subject is almost secondary to the mood. There's a feeling of quiet observation, capturing a moment in time, but letting it remain open to interpretation. It’s about a feeling more than a story.