Adolescence 1932

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst made this print, called Adolescence, sometime in the early 20th century. It’s rendered in these monochrome tones, built up from delicate marks, almost like he’s caressing the plate. The texture has this velvety quality, achieved through drypoint, which gives the image a soft focus. There’s a real emphasis on surfaces, from the skin of the figure to the reflective glass of the mirror. Look at the way Brockhurst plays with light and shadow, creating depth and volume with subtle gradations of tone. I keep coming back to the figure’s gaze in the mirror: it’s so direct and unflinching, yet there’s also a vulnerability there. Brockhurst’s work reminds me a little of Lucian Freud, another artist who was interested in the human form and the psychological weight of portraiture. What’s really interesting about this piece, and art more generally, is the way it invites us to look closely and see things in new ways.