Spoorweg en gezicht op het Vredespaleis 1888 - 1945

This is an etching of a railway and the Peace Palace by Chris Lebeau, made with a metal plate and acid, and lots of patience. You can almost see Lebeau meticulously working on the plate, scratching away to create those fine lines. I wonder what he was thinking as he worked. Was he thinking about industry and progress? Maybe he was thinking about peace and the future, or maybe he was just interested in how the tracks curved in space! There is such a sense of quiet observation in the print. See how the Peace Palace looms in the distance? And then, the way the railway tracks lead your eye into the scene. Lebeau is drawing our attention to the relationship between near and far, between movement and stasis. To me, it seems the railway is more than just a railway: it's a line of thought connecting us to a space for dreams.