Bath c. 1915

John Sloan made this print, Bath, using etching on paper. It's a brown monochrome, made up of quick hatched lines that give the surface a real energy. The figure almost emerges out of this sea of marks. I love how the marks describing the figure are dense and concentrated, while the surrounding areas use a looser hatching to suggest space and form. In the lower part of the image, the lines form more regular patterns, evoking the structure of the bathtub and the floor. The overall effect is one of intimacy, capturing a private moment with a raw, immediate quality. It's a bit like you are seeing it as it comes into being, a process revealed on the surface of the work, which reminds me a little of Kathe Kollwitz, another artist who could summon tenderness and brutality in a few simple lines. It shows how the simplest means can conjure an entire world.