Jasante de la Vielle 1902

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen made this etching, Jasante de la Vielle, using delicate strokes of ink to bring forth an image of haunting fragility. I imagine Steinlen, hunched over his plate, scratching away with his needle, building up the image from a network of tiny lines. The old woman emerges from the darkness, a network of hatched marks, and her expression is caught somewhere between resignation and a glimmer of defiance. There’s something both tender and unsettling about the way Steinlen captures her. Was he thinking of Rembrandt? I think so. This old woman is a close relative of Rembrandt's melancholic figures. Artists like Steinlen and Rembrandt are in constant conversation, sharing secrets across centuries. Painting, like life, is an ongoing, open-ended process where the same questions are asked in ever new ways.