Peppina 1919

Paul-Albert Besnard made this print, Peppina, using etching. Look at how those hatched lines come together to form a face—so fresh and light, really just a whisper of tone! I wonder what it was like to stand before Peppina as he worked? I can imagine Besnard thinking about capturing not just her likeness, but her spirit, too. The etching feels so immediate. It reminds me of how Degas would use charcoal, rapidly building up tone with layers of marks. There’s a freedom in the way that Besnard uses line to describe form that feels very modern. You can see the confidence of the hand, the pleasure in mark-making itself. I see a conversation happening between artists across time, each inspiring the next to see the world in a new way. It’s all about those lines—how they dance and weave, suggesting so much with so little.