Portret van Geertje Kuyer 1915

This is Julie de Graag’s 1915 portrait of Geertje Kuyer, made with etching on paper. I can imagine her, the artist, bent over the plate, scratching away at the metal with a needle. It’s a whole world created with lines, marks, and hatching. You know, when I look at this portrait, I feel like I’m looking at the history of mark-making. I wonder if De Graag felt a certain kinship with her sitter, whose face is likewise mapped with the marks of experience. The dense knit of Kuyer’s shawl is echoed in the fine lines of her brow, the delicate wrinkles around her eyes. Her plain bonnet, framing her weary face, becomes a graphic pattern, like the expressive folds and creases are somehow both representational and abstract at the same time. It reminds me of some of the amazing portraits of women made by Paula Modersohn-Becker. The way each artist uses line to convey form and feeling is like a conversation across time. Each mark feels deliberate, full of intention and quiet intensity.