Once again, we have the pleasure of presenting a very interesting painting by Bertha Wegmann, where she works on both an immediately recognizable and emotional level as well as a more abstract artistic level with several layers of space and planes and contrasts between meticulously detailed brushstrokes combined with more loose ones, moving between light and dark, warm and cold colours.

It is a painting that clearly shows how much Wegmann was inspired by the French art scene in the late 1800s, which she had come to know intimately during her many study trips to Paris in the 1880s, where she also on several occasions exhibited at the Salon. In Paris, Wegmann signed her paintings with the more French-sounding name Vegman, which this painting is also signed with. Therefore, it was almost certainly painted in Paris.

A young woman sits with her front towards the viewer bent forward with head in hand. The crown of the head is also turned towards the viewer, while the face is downturned and seen in a heavy foreshortening. We cannot see the woman’s eyes or gaze – only an eyebrow and a beautifully rounded eyelid. The other eye is hidden behind the hand. Her cheek is flaring red. Is she tired, contemplative, or grieving? We do not know, but she comes so close and directly towards us that we are immediately affected by her and the melancholic mood.

The young woman is sitting in front of a wall, on which in the upper right-hand corner hangs a landscape painting in a heavy gold frame that matches her golden hair band. The painting in the painting is executed with loose brushstrokes in dark brownish colours – is it a lake, where long slender tree trunks are reflected in the water? Under the painting in the lower right corner hangs another landscape – without a frame. One can see the bright unpainted canvas fastened with nails along the left edge of the unframed painting. A small piece of clear blue sky is seen along the top edge. Behind the woman in the upper left corner, we can see a square surface painted with very loose brush strokes in bright green shades. Is it another landscape painting within the painting – or is it an open window or door facing a landscape? It is difficult to determine with certainty, as the frame, unlike the other two paintings in the painting, is not clearly defined but left ambiguous.

It is therefore a very enigmatic and extremely interesting painting, which presents new exciting aspects of Wegmann's multifaceted artistic talent.

Bertha Wegmann's artwork can currently also be seen at the exhibition “Bertha Wegmann. Painting in Many Languages” at The Hirschsprung Collection.