The Rubbish Cart 1902

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen made this print, The Rubbish Cart, using etching, a medium where mark making is direct, and unforgiving. The tonal range is limited, but the range of marks, scratchy, linear, creates a mood that is dark, almost claustrophobic. The material is the thing. The surface is built up of many marks, a chaos of lines, like a swarm, an accumulation. Look at how Steinlen describes the horses: he captures their weight, their tired energy, with a few simple strokes. See how the legs in particular dissolve into a blur of motion? And the way the light catches the buildings in the background? Each window is a tiny rectangle, a moment of illumination in the gloom. Steinlen's prints remind me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, in their commitment to depicting the lives of ordinary people, with empathy and a critical eye. But Steinlen has a lightness, a sense of humor, that is all his own. His work leaves us with the idea that even rubbish can be art.