Advocaat met klanten voor de rechtbank 1909

Jean-Louis Forain captured this courtroom scene with swift, etched lines that dance like nervous energy. The sepia tones whisper of old paper and legal documents, of lives hanging in the balance. I imagine Forain, charcoal in hand, sketching furiously to capture the weight of the moment. The lawyer, hunched over his papers, becomes a blur of dark lines – maybe Forain empathized with the intensity of his focus? The mother clutches her child, a vulnerable mass of looping strokes amidst the harsh geometry of the court. You know, it’s like when I’m painting and trying to catch a feeling, and I scrub and redraw until the shape finally embodies the emotion I'm after. Forain is doing that here, but with an etching needle on a plate. The image, the marks, all of it vibrates with the anxieties of those waiting for judgement. Like a visual poem on human fragility.