Peter with a Gunshot Wound in His Forehead 1918

Walter Gramatté made this etching, called *Peter with a Gunshot Wound in His Forehead*, at some unknown date. Imagine Gramatté bent over this plate, the scratching, the biting, the wiping, each step a kind of slow violence to get to this image of violence. What was Gramatté thinking as he made this? The lines are so delicate, yet they carry such weight, like a whisper shouting a secret. Is it blood or sweat running down Peter’s face? I think about Goya and his disasters of war. The way he used etching to capture the horror of what he saw. It makes me think about how artists find ways to look at the darkest parts of life. You can see the influence of expressionism, the raw emotion, the vulnerability laid bare. But it’s also so controlled, so deliberate, that it’s both moving and unsettling. Artists are always in conversation with each other. It’s an ongoing exchange, and in this piece, it’s as if Gramatté is speaking directly to us, asking us to confront the difficult and uncomfortable.