Portret van een onbekende vrouw met op de achtergrond Japanse prenten 1910

This portrait of an unknown woman with Japanese prints in the background was made by James Craig Annan, though we are not sure exactly when. Looking at the greyscale tones, it feels like the artist was trying to balance the composition through tonal control, like a kind of orchestration. I imagine Annan seeing how to make it all work together, how the objects play off each other and how to arrange the textures of the image so it all sits together as a unified image. I like how the vase of delicate sprigs interacts with the prints. There’s a conversation happening there, some kind of dialogue. The flatness of the prints emphasizes the volume of the vase, and this brings out the three-dimensionality of the woman in the foreground. All these elements, their different weights and textures, work together.