Malines Cathedral 1932

This etching by Emile Antoine Verpilleux shows the Malines Cathedral in muted browns and greens with a flurry of delicate white lines suggesting clouds. It's like the artist is caught between different worlds: the precision of architectural drawing, the tonal drama of etching, and the suggestive freedom of Impressionism. I love how the cathedral looms, monumental and a bit forbidding, yet the scene is softened by the hazy atmosphere. Look at the procession in the foreground – a line of dark, undefined shapes. What are they doing? Where are they going? Verpilleux doesn’t tell us, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s up to us to fill in the blanks, to imagine the story behind this evocative scene. Painting is a conversation across time, an artist’s interpretation inspiring our own.