Lady Peel 1912

Here in Minneapolis is Timothy Cole’s monochrome engraving, "Lady Peel." Just imagine the artist, bent over a plate, pushing the metal to coax out these tones, this character! I really feel for Timothy Cole as he worked on this small, highly detailed image, and he probably had some source to work from, perhaps a painting. Look at the gradations of light and dark, and those soft lines defining the sitter's face. It’s so hard to do that, but so easy to mess it up. You can see Cole trying to render something soft and almost painterly, I bet he felt like he was in conversation with the original painter – wrestling with the same questions. I wonder if he had to look at the source painting with one eye closed? I sometimes do that! Isn’t it amazing how artists, through their own specific labor, keep other artists alive?