The Outer Harbor of La Rochelle 1904

Gustave Leheutre made this etching of the Outer Harbor of La Rochelle, and you can see how he really dug into the plate. I mean that literally, because the physical process of etching involves using acid to eat away at the metal, but also figuratively, because he didn’t hold back, making the image with lots of tiny but very active lines. This creates dark and light with a full range of greys, and gives a feeling of depth to the scene. Look at how he defines the buildings on the horizon with just a few marks, and how the figures in the foreground are more suggested than described. With some ink and a few lines, Leheutre shows us the feeling of being on the beach, and even the vastness of the sky. It’s a bit like Whistler, who was also interested in these kinds of tonal relationships, and like him, Leheutre gives us a sense of a place rather than a photographic depiction.