Lady Skipwith 1912

Timothy Cole made this engraving of Lady Skipwith, and it’s all about these incredibly fine lines, right? Imagine him, bent over this plate, meticulously carving each one. It must have been a kind of meditation. You know, when I look at this portrait, I think about all the layers of looking that go into it. Cole is looking at a painting of Lady Skipwith, and then we’re looking at his version. It’s like a game of telephone, but with images. What was it like to be Lady Skipwith, sitting for her portrait? Did she ever imagine she’d be copied and recopied, her image traveling through time like this? And those tiny lines—they create this incredible sense of depth, a world of shadows and light. They remind me that art isn’t just about what we see, but how we see it. And how an artist's vision can transform a subject into something new and unexpected. It's like painters are constantly responding to each other's work, building on ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.