The Patrician Women on Their Terraces 1960

Benton Spruance made this lithograph, The Patrician Women on Their Terraces, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. Look closely, and you can see how Spruance embraced the inherent messiness of lithography. The dense blacks and grays create a moody atmosphere, with the figures emerging from the shadows. See how the texture varies from smooth, almost velvety blacks to areas of rough, granular detail? The lower portion is a sea of white, and if you look closely, you can see that these marks were made by scraping the surface away to reveal the white of the paper. I’m drawn to the way the seated figure leans forward, her dark silhouette contrasting with the lighter figure lying behind. This interplay suggests a narrative tension, a conversation perhaps, or a silent observation. There’s something about Spruance's work that reminds me of Kathe Kollwitz, in that both artists use printmaking to express deep human emotion. Ultimately, The Patrician Women remains open-ended, a testament to art's ability to evoke multiple feelings.