Cos Cob Dock 1915

Childe Hassam made this print of Cos Cob Dock using etching, a process that always feels a little like controlled chaos to me. Look at the swarm of tiny lines, a whole ecosystem of marks, that create the buildings and water. What I find fascinating is the way the etched lines build up the textures, like the tangled mess of what seems to be netting on the left. It's so dense, almost a solid object, but also airy and light because you can still see the paper through it. It reminds me that artmaking is all about creating these kinds of tensions, solid and void, dark and light, real and illusion. It’s like a conversation between what's there and what isn't. Hassam’s work reminds me a bit of Whistler, with this interest in capturing fleeting moments and the beauty of everyday scenes. But it’s also totally its own thing, like a whispered secret in the ongoing dialogue of art.