In Camera 1901

Muirhead Bone pulled this etching, In Camera, with ink on paper. I can almost see Bone in his studio, steeling himself before the plate. It's difficult to imagine the concentration it would take to create this level of detail, all those tiny strokes, all that cross-hatching. And yet it feels loose, almost instinctive. The lines around those figures create a sense of movement, as if they're caught in a snapshot. Look at the long sweeping lines that define the foreground. The light is amazing. They seem to emerge from the shadows, don’t they? But that light is so fragile, as though it might dissipate at any moment. I wonder if Bone was thinking about how fleeting time is, the sense of impermanence that's part of life. It makes me think about other etchers like Whistler, and how they use light and shadow to create atmosphere. I wonder what a conversation between them would have sounded like!