The Bellringer's Wife 1934

Robert Austin made this etching, *The Bellringer's Wife*, and I am immediately intrigued by the story, the scene, the mood, and the shapes. Look at the marks, they’re so delicate. It must have taken the artist a while to create the light. The lines look like they were bitten into the metal, slowly, carefully. I love the way the artist has depicted the steep staircase, with its wooden beams creating a kind of cage around the figure. She’s holding on tight, carefully making her way down. I imagine Robert Austin carefully placing each line, thinking about how to create depth and shadow, how to describe her feelings, perhaps, of both confinement and strength. It reminds me of Piranesi's etchings of prisons, these vast, imaginary spaces. But here, the confinement is smaller, more human. And the woman is at the center of the composition, literally and figuratively holding it all together. That's where the magic happens: in the process of seeing.