Neva early in the morning 1922

Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva made this etching of the Neva river, and it is just gorgeous. Look at the barely-there lines of the buildings and the soft sky—it almost disappears into nothing, like a memory. I love to think about Anna out there, early in the morning as the title suggests. The challenge of capturing such a subtle scene must have been something. I can imagine the work involved in getting the reflections just right. The way they blur and soften the architectural details. It’s so simple but so complex, you know? This reminds me of some of Whistler’s tonalist paintings, so poetic and restrained. It feels like a conversation between artists across time, each one finding new ways to see and express the world. A reminder that painting is about feeling and seeing. It is also about the marks and the space around them, the dance between intention and chance.