The Aquatania Entering Southampton 1923

Muirhead Bone made this ink and watercolor drawing, The Aquatania Entering Southampton, in August 1923. It's all about capturing a sense of place and motion with a very deliberate hand. The marks, lines, and washes aren’t trying to trick you into thinking you’re seeing reality, they're sort of stage directions, aren't they? Like the scribbled waves, and the web of rigging rendered with such angular intensity. Then there's the smokestack, just a big, dumb, friendly oval looming over it all. The pale colors and almost frantic lines make me think of a Cy Twombly painting, and you could say Bone is doing something similar, using his own shorthand, to capture the sensation of being on deck as this massive ocean liner makes its way into port. It's the kind of work that makes you want to grab your sketchbook and find your own way to say what you see.