The Americans at Château-Thierry 1918

This etching by Lester George Hornby shows us 'The Americans at Château-Thierry', it feels like it was made in a flurry of marks, a real urgency to get it down, like a sketch from life. Hornby’s use of line is so evocative. Look at the way he renders the sky, with these dense, almost chaotic strokes that suggest a brooding, oppressive atmosphere, pregnant with rain and tension. Then, your eye is pulled down to the distant castle with a mass of infantrymen on horseback resting below it, all rendered with precision and care. I see the line work almost like musical notation. There’s a contrast between the solidity of the castle and the ephemeral quality of the rain and sky, and that contrast makes this image so powerful. It reminds me of Whistler, how he used etching to capture fleeting moments, to try and seize something of the atmosphere and mood of a place. Ultimately, art's about capturing a feeling, and Hornby does that here.