Mittendorf, Outskirts of Munich c. 1900 - 1920

Gustave Hoffman made this etching of the outskirts of Munich, and its open mark making gives you a real sense of the artist working, thinking, and feeling, his way through the image. Look at the way he renders the road, through the use of short, gestural lines, giving it a sort of shimmering texture. It's a very physical kind of mark, something that suggests movement. The trees in the background are made up of similar marks, like a flurry, or cloud of ink. This kind of loose, gestural mark making is really interesting in the context of etching, where every mark has to be carefully and deliberately applied to the plate. You can almost see Whistler in the way he lets the image emerge from a field of marks. It reminds us that art is, in the end, a conversation.