Warriston Close 1905

This etching, ‘Warriston Close Edinburgh’ by James McBey, has these tightly hatched lines, building up a dark, shadowy view into the close. I can only imagine him, bent over the plate, scratching away with his tools, building it up, wiping it down. There is something so great about the act of looking closely at the world, trying to capture it, and then translating it through the body. You can see McBey relishing the tonal contrasts, the light that breaks through. You can imagine him pondering: how to get that recession into space? How to make the figures in the foreground present? I look at this and I can imagine a whole world, an atmosphere, even though it's just lines. The light feels like a character in the print. It reminds me of Whistler and his prints of London – that same fascination with atmosphere and fleeting moments. It’s like McBey’s saying, let’s find the extraordinary in the ordinary.