Mother and Child 1911

Francis Dodd made this etching of a mother and child, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. I can almost feel the incisive bite of the etching tool into the metal plate, figuring and re-figuring the tonal gradations of dark and light. Look at the way he captures the tenderness between mother and child. The mother's downward gaze, the way she cradles the baby in her arms, it’s all so gentle. It speaks to the quiet, intimate moments of connection. It makes me wonder if Dodd was thinking about those Renaissance Madonnas, those timeless images of motherhood, and how he might capture that same feeling using modern mark-making. You see echoes of past masters like Käthe Kollwitz in Dodd’s work. Artists are always talking to each other, aren’t they? Each one builds on what came before, adding their own voice to the conversation. Dodd offers us his. He isn’t afraid to leave things unresolved, to let the ink and paper do their thing. It’s honest, raw, and deeply human.