A Mill Lock in the Middle of Willows, plate 97 from Figures de différents caractères, de Paysages, et d’Etudes dessinées d'après nature (Figures of Different Characters, Landscapes, and Studies Drawn from Nature) 1726

Francois Boucher made this landscape etching, A Mill Lock in the Middle of Willows, sometime in the 18th century. Here, the willow is the central figure, its sinuous branches leaning and bending. Willows, throughout art history, often signal sorrow or melancholy. Think of Ophelia, surrounded by willows in her watery grave, or the weeping willow in funerary art. Yet, the flowing water near these trees provides a counterpoint, a dance between sorrow and life. Water, like the willows, carries its own symbolic weight, from cleansing to chaos. Both elements engage our subconscious, evoking feelings of transience and the eternal cycle of nature, shaping how we perceive the scene. It creates a space where personal emotions mingle with shared cultural memories. In this way, the cycle of life and death appears, in a powerful emotional landscape.