A.J. Donkin 1911

Francis Dodd made this print of A.J. Donkin sometime in the first half of the 20th Century, using etching. Look at the mass of tiny hatched lines making up the dark areas of the image. Dodd has built tone on the figure’s academic robes and legs. This must have taken some time. It feels a little obsessive, like a form of meditation, not unlike the way I feel when I’m building up layers on a canvas. There’s a real contrast between the frenetic hatching on the clothes and the face, which is rendered much more sparsely and delicately. It’s as if the artist is thinking about different ways of seeing. Those areas of heavy hatching almost seem to vibrate, contrasting with the stillness and calmness of the face. I’m reminded a little of some of the more contemplative works of Lucian Freud, who shared with Dodd a deep interest in portraiture. For both artists, the act of observing becomes a kind of performance, an almost ritualistic activity, repeated over and over again.