Aquarium, Artis 1936

Pieter Willem van Baarsel made this print called Aquarium, Artis, though we don't know exactly when. The drawing shows a group of fish, maybe pike and catfish, hanging out in an aquarium. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the plate, scratching out each tiny little scale, creating a sense of depth and movement. What was going through Baarsel's mind as he made this? Was he thinking about the way light filters through the water? Or about the mystery of what lives beneath the surface? Did he labor over the work, or did it emerge quickly from his imagination? The longer I look, the more I realize how much other art this reminds me of. Think of Durer's studies of animals or Ernst Haeckel's sea creatures. It's like all these artists are having a conversation across time, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.