Details
The image
A close, uncomfortable composition: a face half buried in a mass of hair that fills most of the sheet, the lines loose and the colour thin. There is no background and no distance, the viewer is placed inside the subject rather than in front of it.
Where it comes from
Norwegian painting at the end of the nineteenth century turned to subjects that had been considered private: anxiety, jealousy, illness, the body. This belongs to that current and to a series of works in which one figure absorbs another. The handling is deliberately unfinished, because the point was the emotion rather than the surface.
On the wall
It carries weight, so it suits a study, a bedroom or a reading corner rather than a hallway. Because the image is close and the colour is thin, it needs light and a wall that is not too busy. In a group it should be given space, the face needs distance to work.
In company
Pairs well with photography and with dark wood and it can hold a wall alone. Avoid hanging it beside other figurative work, two faces compete. A thin dark frame keeps the drawing severe, which is right for it. Printing of this period is what the Vintage collection is made of.
