St. Ouen, Rouen 1903

This is Donald Shaw MacLaughlan’s print of St. Ouen in Rouen. You can see how it’s made from a complex weave of etched lines, like the artist is feeling his way around this massive cathedral. I can imagine MacLaughlan outside in all weathers with his metal plate covered in wax, scratching through it with a needle, figuring out how to capture the sheer scale and detail of this gothic church. Then, back in the studio, he’d bathe the plate in acid, each line biting into the metal to hold ink. The contrast between the solid architecture and the delicacy of the etching is striking. Those fine lines, close together, create a sense of light and shadow, but also, you get the feeling of a real weight. This image reminds us that artists are always in dialogue with the world around them, trying to make sense of what they see and feel. Each stroke, each line, is a tiny piece of that conversation.