Dante 1916

J.A. Jerichau made this etching, Dante, which is to say he scratched lines into a metal plate, inked it, and pressed it onto paper. The result is a bunch of rather frenetic lines, like he was trying to get the image out as fast as possible. I wonder what Jerichau was thinking about when he made this? Maybe he was reading Dante’s Inferno and was super inspired. I can imagine him sitting at his desk, furiously sketching away, trying to capture the energy and drama of the story. Those sketchy lines! They remind me a little bit of Goya’s etchings, all those darks and lights and the way he captures movement with just a few strokes. It is as if Jerichau had Goya on his mind. Painters are always in conversation with each other, riffing off each other's ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.