Florentine Palaces 1909

Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt made this small etching called "Florentine Palaces" sometime around 1900. It is small, so you have to get up close to really see the details that he has etched here. I like the way he's balanced the weight of those heavy buildings with the delicate reflections in the water. You can see the light shimmering on the surface of the water. He must have sat there for a long time, maybe sketching first, before he worked on the plate for the etching. I wonder if he was thinking about Whistler, another printmaker. The way he's used all those tiny lines to create depth and texture makes me think about the process of seeing, and how we piece together an image from all these little bits of information. It reminds me that art isn't just about what we see, but how we see it.