Cavendish Church 1944

John Taylor Arms made this etching of Cavendish Church at some point in his career. It’s incredible isn’t it, all those tiny, precise lines? I keep wondering what it might have been like for him to create it. Did he work outside, sitting in the graveyard maybe? Or did he work from photographs in his studio? That tower dominates the picture plane. There are all these details, windows, arches, stonework, and each one seems to have been etched with so much care. I bet he spent hours and hours on it, and maybe he lost himself a little in the process. Arms probably saw himself in a lineage of artists obsessed with light and form. Think of Dürer or Piranesi, or maybe even some of the Hudson River School painters, but then of course maybe not! I can imagine Arms working away, late into the night, surrounded by his tools and plates. He’s part of a long, long conversation.