Lourdes, Transport of the Paralyzed

Jean-Louis Forain made this print, Lourdes, Transport of the Paralyzed, with etching, a process as physically demanding as the subject it portrays. The hatching in the foreground is sparse, almost whispered, then look at the man holding the child: a dense network of etched lines makes him weighty, present. There is a contrast here between the ethereal rendering of the sick on their beds and the grounded figures that assist them. Notice the figure kneeling in the center, reaching out towards the crowd. The frenetic energy of the marks here make me think of Rodin, a sculptor who similarly reveled in unfinished surfaces and the emotive potential of process. Forain was an admirer of Daumier, and like Daumier he looked to modern life as a rich source of subject matter, finding the pathos in everyday experiences.