Touques Valley 1906

Robert Demachy shot "Touques Valley" at some point during his career. It's an exploration in shades of dark brown, like he was making a print from memory, sifting through the details of what he remembered to be there in that valley. I feel like he's looking for the horizon line in all of this. Is it there? Is it not? It’s a bit like he’s feeling his way through a dark room, hands outstretched, trying to catch something, anything, that feels like a familiar form. Those trees in the middle act as a screen, or a curtain, and it gives the scene an emotional intensity. What's behind them? I think this print carries echoes of Corot, or even some of the Hudson River School painters. It's as if Demachy is calling across time to these other artists. As if to say, "I see what you were trying to do, and I'm trying to do it too, in my own way, with my own tools." That’s how it goes: artists, always riffing off each other, always in conversation.