Le Pont Neuf, Paris (with remarque) 1906

This etching of Le Pont Neuf in Paris by Donald Shaw MacLaughlan is a whole world rendered in delicate lines. Imagine MacLaughlan, bent over the plate, scratching away to conjure these buildings, bridges and boats into being. You can see the way his marks build up, darker where the shadows gather under the arches, lighter where the sun glances off the water. It's like he's thinking through the image, letting it emerge bit by bit. Does the city feel solid? Or does it feel crumbly? I love the way the image kind of dissolves as it moves away from the bridge. There's a wonderful sense of atmosphere, almost as if you can feel the dampness rising from the river. It's something so specific to the process of etching, I think. It connects to the etchings of Whistler, and all those tonalist painters—they're all in conversation, you know, finding their own way to evoke a mood, a place, a feeling.