Poortje, Hotel Bellevue, Buitenzorg c. 1921

Willem Witsen made this print, Poortje, Hotel Bellevue, Buitenzorg, with etching. All that brown makes you feel like you’re looking at something ancient, like it's been sitting in the sun for a very, very long time. And what I notice, is how the etched line both reveals and obscures the image. It is kind of an image and kind of an abstraction. The light feels like it’s dissolving everything into a kind of memory. It could almost be a photograph, but something about the handmade quality gives it a more intimate feel, like a letter. Look at the different tones Witsen creates with just a few simple lines! See how the lines get denser in the shadows and then fade away into the light? This makes me think of Whistler's prints. Both artists really knew how to make a scene glow. Anyway, I could get lost in this print for days. It’s a whole world in a little window.