Woman Gathering Sticks 1906

Augustus John made this print using etching, and it feels like the image emerged from a tangle of lines, almost like the sticks the woman is gathering. The marks are restless, scratchy, urgent—they build up the figure and the landscape with a kind of raw energy. You know, I can imagine John hunched over the plate, the acid biting into the metal as he drew, maybe trying to capture the essence of labor, the wind, the weight of the wood, and the woman's purpose. There’s a directness to it, like he wanted to show you the bare bones of the scene, no frills, just the basics. It’s as if he's saying, "Here, look at this. This is life, this is what it means to work, to survive." Artists like John are in conversation with earlier artists, and I am sure he was looking at Daumier at the time. Ultimately, it’s about how these marks can stand in for feeling, for a whole way of seeing the world.