The Model

The Model from 1901 explores the relationship between the painter and his subject — a theme that runs through the history of studio painting from Vermeer through Courbet and into the more psychologically fraught territory of Munch and the Viennese Secession. Weiss painted studio subjects throughout his career, and The Model engages with questions about the dynamics of looking and being looked at that were central to the Symbolist and early Modernist redefinition of the artist-model relationship. The National Museum in Kraków holds this alongside The Nude as part of its collection of Weiss's figure paintings from his first mature decade.

Weiss renders the studio scene with a relatively restrained palette that emphasizes the cool, diffuse light of a studio interior — north-facing, even, and without the drama of outdoor or artificial illumination. The model's figure is given a matter-of-fact quality appropriate to the professional nature of the studio encounter.