Branding 1900 - 1931

This wave scene, “Branding” by O. Droegl, looks like it was made with some kind of printmaking technique. The colour palette is limited, maybe three or four shades of grey, and white for the wave crests. It makes you wonder what the artist was thinking about during the process. The physical quality of the piece is interesting. The texture seems smooth, which is due to the printing process, but the subject is the roiling sea. Look closely and you can see how the wave foam has been handled with negative space, the paper left unprinted to depict movement and energy. The heavy sky, the dark waves, and the pale water together create a melancholy feeling. If you look at Hiroshige’s woodblock prints, you can see how artists across time use waves to speak to the human condition. Ultimately, art is like a conversation, a way of thinking about the world through images.