Westertoren in Amsterdam 1907 - 1908

This is Pieter Dupont’s etching of the Westertoren in Amsterdam. It's all in shades of gray, but there’s a real textural variety from the sky to the stonework. You can see how the clouds are wispy and soft, created by these very light, almost sketched lines, but the Westertoren itself is solid, with darker, more defined marks. Looking at the Westertoren, it’s incredible how much detail Dupont manages to get, with all those tiny lines giving it such a sense of depth and age. You can almost feel the roughness of the stone. Below it, the trees are kind of scrawly and loose. The way Dupont uses lines to create these different textures and tones reminds me a little of Piranesi's architectural prints, where the medium becomes the message. It makes you realize that art isn't just about copying what you see, but about transforming it through your own way of working.