Erika Holmquist-Wall

Imagine him working very, very quickly capturing the essence of the model, capturing the shape of her body, the features of her face. These are simple, clean, pure line drawings. And in the lithograph where she is leaning forward, the nude [Phonetic][0:00:22] in the rocking chair, there is all this movement. She’s relaxed, she’s smiling and there is something about this seated nude viewed from behind where you see her back and her hair tied up at little buns. There’s something very Japanese about it in the use of the space, the angle that tells of her body. I think what’s really interesting when you’re looking at these lithographs is that they are so expressive. They are so powerful. They are so simple. They are drawn very quickly, there are no revisions. He doesn’t go back in and fuss or tweak, it’s instantaneous, it’s a snapshot. In 1913, I mean look how kind of radical these are.