Studie 1875 - 1950

This little study was etched by Ingeborg Andréasen-Lindborg, and even though we don't have a date for it, you can imagine her, can't you? Hunched over the plate, working with acid and tools, coaxing this image into being. The marks are so delicate, creating a network of lines that form the girl’s dress, the chair she’s sitting on, and the way she focuses on her work. The etching is so small, but it contains a whole world of quiet concentration. You can almost feel the stillness of the moment. What do you think the girl is making? Is it useful or beautiful or both? I wonder what Andréasen-Lindborg was thinking about as she made it. Did she remember being a girl herself? Did she focus on getting the right kind of line, the kind of light that would bring out the texture of the fabric? Painters have always learned from each other, copying and riffing and challenging each other's ways of seeing. That’s how art evolves, isn’t it? We build on what came before, and we pass it on to the next generation, incomplete and full of potential.