François Lagrenée

François Lagrenée had a habit of sketching passersby in cafés across Paris, always with a pocketful of colored pencils and a habit of scribbling notes in the margins of his drawings. He’d tuck them into books or hand them to strangers, no grand plan, just a way to stay present. His watercolor Naisen muotokuva captures a woman’s face half in shadow, her expression shifting with the light, as if the paper itself is breathing.

You’ll find it nestled in the corner of the Musée d’Orsay’s prints and drawings room, tucked between the bigger names, easy to miss, but worth the detour.