Serpent Merchant Possibly 1908

Auguste-Louis Lepère made this etching, Serpent Merchant, and when I look at it, I think of it as a drawing as much as a print. You can see the artist felt their way into the image using lots of tiny strokes. The lines feel so immediate. I love how Lepère uses these marks to build up the tones and textures in the woman’s clothing and face. There's real energy in those cross-hatching lines, see how they give volume to her skirt? And then there's the snake itself, almost a character in its own right, winding its way around the merchant’s neck. It makes me think about the kinds of negotiations that are happening here, between the artist and the medium, the woman and the snake, even us and the artwork itself. It makes me think of Whistler, another printmaker of the time, playing with similar themes of urban life and labor. But Lepère has a grittier edge, a realness that feels very alive. And that's what keeps me coming back to art, that sense of a conversation unfolding, always open to new voices and new perspectives.