Tivoli 1905

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this print, Tivoli, with etching. You can see the marks the artist has made, the lines moving around, almost vibrating on the page. I’m thinking about how the artist might have held the tool, digging into the plate, figuring out how to show the way the trees looked, the buildings looked. It’s almost like they’re exploring the world, and their vision of it, through the marks that they make. What does it mean to translate such a beautiful landscape into a series of delicate lines? It makes me think about other artists like Piranesi, who also used etching to capture the grandeur and decay of Italian architecture. Maybe MacLaughlan was looking at his work, thinking about how to create a sense of depth and atmosphere with just a few simple lines. Whatever it was, it’s amazing to think about how artists keep having these conversations across time, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.