Leeuw 1912

This is Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita's 'Leeuw', made using woodcut, a technique where the artist carves an image into a block of wood, inks it, and presses it onto paper. You can almost feel the artist working, right? What strikes me about this piece is the contrast. The lion's dark mane against its pale body, the rigid bars against the animal's languid pose. It's all about texture too. Look at how the wood grain gives a tactile quality to the floor, while the lion's fur seems almost velvety. It makes you wonder what kind of tools Mesquita used to achieve these effects. That little tail twitch at the end is just the best. Is it boredom, or a sign of contained power? It's like Mesquita is reminding us that there's always more than one way to look at things. He was a mentor to M.C. Escher, and you can see that sense of visual playfulness here, can't you? Art is always in conversation with itself, and this print is a perfect example of that.