The Log Boom c. 1924

Hans Kleiber made this etching, called The Log Boom, using black ink on cream paper. I find myself wondering about the gesture of the artist. Imagine Kleiber, standing outside, watching workers as they navigate precariously across the water. The scene is rendered through closely worked parallel lines; the dark reflections of the logs appear like ghostly doppelgangers. The artist's hand has flicked back and forth to produce the broken surface of the water. The figures become almost like musical notes, placed on the horizontal staves of the logs. I can imagine Kleiber deciding to focus on the way industry and nature coalesce and even merge. Smoke rises up from the buildings in the distance, echoing the shape of the trees on the horizon line. I wonder if he sees the inherent beauty in such scenes, the ways man marks nature and how nature persists in the face of that encroachment. I see in it, and in him, a kinship with other landscape artists. We're all watching each other, learning from each other, across time.