Le Coteau 1914

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen made this print, Le Coteau, with densely layered strokes that create a somber but also kind of romantic landscape. I’m thinking about Steinlen and his mark-making. He’s really digging in, right? Layer upon layer of marks build up, and you can almost feel the pressure he exerted to make this image. There is a strong pull to the lower left corner. I wonder, was he standing on a hill, looking down at a village in the valley? Did he want to draw the viewer into a certain way of seeing the landscape? The scene is imbued with such stillness, with the heaviness of shadow adding to the overall mood. I suppose Steinlen was like, "How can I translate this into a bunch of lines?"—a question every printmaker grapples with. There is an exchange of ideas happening with printmaking and how it relates to drawing. It’s as if he is whispering, "Look at this place. I was here, and now you are too."