Brug in Parijs 1888 - 1934

Willem Adrianus Grondhout made this black-and-white print of a bridge in Paris, and what strikes me is the patient labor of the artist. I imagine him, slowly building up the image through tiny marks, cross-hatching, lines going this way and that. He’s trying to get at not just the look but the feel of the Seine, the weight of the bridge’s stone arches, the way the light hits those buildings in the background. The details are amazing. There is a horse standing under the bridge. There are tiny figures on boats, on the bridge itself, like little ghosts haunting the architecture. I’m curious about that horse! What’s it doing there? It’s a whole world, created stroke by stroke. The artist is not only showing us a place, but also a way of seeing. His commitment to observation reminds me of Whistler, another printmaker who found so much beauty in the everyday.