Turning Out the Light 1905

John Sloan made this etching, "Turning Out the Light," sometime in the early twentieth century. Look at all that looping, frenetic line work! It's as though Sloan worked at fever pitch, scratching into that plate, searching for just the right amount of dark and light. I imagine Sloan, perched over his workbench, squinting in the dim light, trying to capture something of the quiet, intimate moment. What's going through his mind as he depicts this woman? It is not a straightforwardly voyeuristic image, there is some tenderness here, a shared understanding, and an intimate understanding of the domestic sphere. You can almost feel the weight of the blankets and the cool air of the room. What I like about Sloan is that he is of his time, yet he is also somehow always relatable. It's that humanity, the way he translates his own feelings into the process of making, that touches us. It's like we're all in this conversation together, across time and space.