Frauenbildnis (Portrait of a Woman) 1914

Lovis Corinth made this portrait of a woman using etching, and what I love is how he's used this medium to focus on process. See how the lines aren't just descriptive, but also kind of exploratory, like the artist is thinking aloud? The beauty of etching, right, is how the acid bites into the plate, leaving these grooves that catch the ink. The marks around her face are like a storm of tiny lines, giving her a sense of depth. But it's also about the gaps, the places where the plate is bare, giving the image this ghostly quality. Look at the way her hands are rendered - they're almost like little bundles of energy. You can feel him working out the form. It reminds me a bit of some of Paula Modersohn-Becker's prints, that same kind of raw, honest approach to the figure. It’s like he’s saying, "Here's a person, not a perfect representation, but a feeling." And that's something I can really get behind.