North End of Telegraph Hill 1918

John W. Winkler made this etching, North End of Telegraph Hill. Look at how the artist has used line to describe form and create texture. There’s something improvised about the scene, as if the whole image has emerged through a process of trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Winkler trying to figure out what it might have been like to be there, etching the plate and using a dry point to get different tonal effects with the burr. The criss-crossing marks build up and become darker and more dense to describe the dwellings on the hillside. Notice how the rapid, loose strokes seem to capture the transient quality of light and shadow. Winkler’s technique recalls James McNeill Whistler, who also used etching to record urban life. These artists are in an ongoing conversation across time. Both approach the urban environment as a source of creative inspiration, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.