Nudo seduto 1913 - 1914

Amedeo Modigliani made this drawing, Nudo Seduto, with pencil on paper. I love the simplicity and the way the blue pencil is used as both line and shading. It gives the figure a dreamlike quality, like a memory fading at the edges. The paper itself is warm and textured, you can almost feel the tooth of it, and that blue dances on top. Modigliani uses the pencil to define the shape of the figure with gentle, flowing lines, but he also uses it to create these hazy, blurred areas. Look at the way the blue spreads out from the figure, it's not quite a shadow, but it gives a sense of depth and atmosphere, doesn't it? It's like the figure is emerging from a mist, or maybe dissolving back into it. There's a vulnerability to it, a quietness that reminds me of the drawings of Egon Schiele, another artist who was interested in the human body, but also in the way that we experience our own existence. It's not about perfection, it's about capturing a fleeting moment, an emotion, a feeling, and that's what makes it so powerful.