Libel 1881 - 1936

Lucie van Dam van Isselt made this etching called ‘Libel’. It’s small, very small, which immediately makes you think about process. Look at the dragonfly’s wings. They are so light and airy, almost like the dragonfly is about to take off. The lines are delicate and precise, really capturing the insect's fragile beauty. The texture is smooth, but you can still see the tiny details in the dragonfly's body and wings, each mark building to create the whole. And then you notice the heaviness of the abdomen. I wonder if that’s the libel – the weight and burden of the name given to it. It makes me think of Dürer, his hyper-realistic style and his interest in the natural world. But where his work has a certain cool detachment, this feels more personal, like an intimate observation. It's just a dragonfly, but it's also so much more.