Seated Female Nude c. 20th century

Robert Henri made this drawing of a seated female nude with ink on paper. I love the directness of this drawing. It's like Henri's just letting the ink flow, figuring out the figure as he goes. The red ink gives the drawing a warmth, a lifeblood quality. It's all about the line here, how it curves and defines the form, but also how it seems to search for it, correct itself. Look at the face, for example. See how the lines are a little unsure, a little scribbled? It's not about getting it perfect, it's about the process of looking, of trying to capture something essential. You can almost feel Henri's hand moving across the paper, trying to find the right curve of the cheek, the set of the eyes. It reminds me of drawings by Egon Schiele, that same raw energy, that same sense of the artist wrestling with the form. And like Schiele, Henri isn't afraid to leave in the "mistakes," to show the evidence of his struggle. It’s a very modern idea, that art isn’t about perfect representation, but about the act of seeing.