The Meadow Chapel 1928

Graham Sutherland made this etching, *The Meadow Chapel*, in the middle of his career. Look at how the marks create texture, like the hatched lines giving weight to the stone wall in the foreground. It’s process-oriented work, where the doing is evident in the final image. The etching is rich in detail, especially the contrast between the smooth wall of the chapel, and the rough texture of the stonework. See the delicate lines suggesting the sun bursting forth to the left, which lends a kind of sublime and mystical quality to the scene. It is like a conversation between dark and light, rough and smooth, drawing you in. You can see a similarity in subject matter and mark making to Samuel Palmer, but Sutherland has his own vision. Ultimately, art is an ongoing dialogue where artists like Sutherland take earlier ideas and transform them into something new. What do you see?