Raft of the Medusa 1910

Timothy Cole made this engraving, “Raft of the Medusa,” and it feels like a tight ship, a really controlled burn. I can just imagine the artist hovering over the copper plate, carefully etching each line, almost caressing the surface. It's not just a copy of Géricault's famous painting. It's a translation, a new take. What was Cole thinking as he worked? Did he feel the weight of history, or just the pull of the image itself? Did he think about mortality? The figures huddle together, a jumble of bodies reaching out. There’s this one figure draped over the side, almost falling out of the frame. It feels like the painter is right there with them, wrestling with form and content, life and death. I think Cole is in dialogue with Géricault, and with all the artists who have grappled with how to represent human suffering. It reminds me that making art is a way of thinking, a way of feeling, a way of being in the world.