Zicht op Antwerpen vanaf de dijk 1923

This delicate etching of Antwerp, by Eugène Bejot, looks like it was drawn directly from life. I imagine Bejot, squinting in the sunlight, carefully rendering the distant skyline. Look at the tactile quality of the line. Bejot uses various techniques of etching to create such different marks. Some are very light and scratchy, others are deeply bitten. The dark, confident marks in the foreground give way to fainter, almost hesitant lines in the distance. I can almost feel the artist’s breath and anticipation as he coaxes the image into being. The cityscape sits beneath a vast sky. What was Bejot thinking when he made this? Was he interested in capturing a place, or something else? What interests me most is that he is clearly in conversation with other artists and printmakers, like Whistler, pushing the medium to its expressive limit.