Au bord de la Bièvre 1890 - 1913

Philip Zilcken made this etching of the Bièvre outside Paris using a technique that's all about the pressure of the hand, the way you coax a line from a metal plate. Look closely, and you’ll see the whole thing is built from delicate lines, a real sense of the artist feeling his way through the scene, a testament to the act of looking and responding. The subtle shading, it’s all about the density and direction of the marks, a kind of drawing with acid. There's this beautiful tension between the industrial buildings and that heap on the left, is it hay, stone? It’s soft and crumbly compared to the hard edges of the architecture, and its texture is so alive. Zilcken reminds me a little of Whistler, with his understated compositions. And like a Cy Twombly drawing, it shows the power of a humble line to convey something profound. Zilcken isn’t trying to impress us, just to share a moment of seeing.