To Bellot 1915

Auguste-Louis Lepère pulled this print, “To Bellot,” sometime in his lifetime. It depicts a path leading towards a cottage with a figure hunched down on the left. I imagine Lepère outside, squinting his eyes slightly to capture the light. Maybe he had to keep re-inking the plate, wiping away the excess, to get it just right. Etching, like painting, is a dance between control and accident, isn’t it? Notice the little strokes that give the trees their fullness. The darks and lights are like whispers, hinting at form. The whole composition is a kind of choreography. Doesn't it make you think of other artists, like Rembrandt, chasing light and shadow in their prints too? They are all in conversation through time, riffing off each other's ideas. Ultimately, this print is less about the place, and more about a feeling. A feeling of being there, in that moment, with Lepère. And that’s what keeps drawing me back in.