Page from a Sketchbook with Figure Studies, 1912 - 1913

The front of a loose page from a sketchbook shows several figure studies; a solitary figure as well as a group of up to seven people. Three of the individual sketches overlap in the center of the page. The sketch with the reclining figures is reminiscent in its depiction of the now lost painting Resurrection (Graves), created in 1913. The two figures above the reclining female figure, which appear to be holding a flat element from which a person seems to be floating upwards, is connected with the small sketch of four figures to the left of it. The guise of the floating person, meanwhile, is repeated in the outlined depiction in the upper left corner, where it is embedded into a scene featuring two kneeling figures. These sketches might be compositional deliberations on the large-scale oil painting Transfiguration – or might they depict those who have risen from their graves floating towards heaven?

KJ, 2024