1955 Portrait de femme II

In this drawing, the artist presents a profile view of a womans head and shoulders, rendered through heavy, expressive linework. The composition is dominated by high-contrast black strokes against a stark white background, creating a sense of sculptural depth despite the two-dimensional medium.
The facial construction relies on a fragmented, almost cubist approach to anatomy. Here we see an eye depicted as a large, almond-shaped void, anchored by thick, dark outlines that lend the gaze an intense, fixed quality. The nose is rendered with bold, angular planes that divide the face into light and shadow, while the mouth is reduced to a simple, stoic line. This simplification strips away individual sentiment, replacing it with a sense of monumental permanence.
The artist placed significant weight on texture through the use of hatching and cross-hatching. The subjects hair – or perhaps a head covering – is rendered as a dense, dark mass of scribbled lines, providing a heavy visual anchor to the left side of the frame. This darkness contrasts sharply with the more delicate, vertical strokes used to define the neck and the slope of the shoulder.
Subtextually, the work evokes a feeling of psychological weight. The downward tilt of certain facial planes and the heavy shadowing around the jawline suggest a state of introspection or perhaps melancholy. There is no attempt at decorative grace; instead, the ruggedness of the strokes conveys a raw, visceral connection to the subjects internal state. The date inscribed in the upper left corner acts as a temporal anchor, grounding this fragmented, timeless face within a specific historical moment of mid-century expressionism.