Standing female nude c. 1937 - 1938

Georg Kolbe made this nude drawing in charcoal on paper, and I just love the controlled smudging and the soft edges. I can imagine him circling the figure, trying to capture the light as it falls across the body. It’s as though Kolbe is asking: How do you make a body appear to stand up on a flat piece of paper? How do you get a sense of mass and gravity? Look at the way he has drawn the back, the spine curving, the shoulder blades pulling the skin. You can almost feel the tension. There’s a real vulnerability in the way he’s drawn the chest and belly, this isn’t some idealised body, it’s solid, human. The charcoal is so light in places that it’s barely there, hovering on the paper like a memory. It feels like Kolbe is in conversation with all the artists who have drawn the human form before him, each one trying to understand something essential about what it means to be alive.