Le Puy 1888 - 1934

Willem Adrianus Grondhout made this etching, Le Puy, with dark lines that describe an opening into a cool, shaded area. Looking at the textures, I can almost feel what it was like for Grondhout to make this. What was he thinking about? Was he standing in the sun, trying to capture the feeling of stepping into the dark unknown? There's a kind of beauty here, in the way he's scratching into the plate, pulling us into the depths of the image. Notice how the ink seems to have pooled in some areas, creating a sort of haze. It's like he's not just showing us a place, but also evoking a mood. It reminds me that, as artists, we're all in conversation with one another, picking up where someone else left off. Each mark, each gesture, is a thought, an emotion, a question, left for us to ponder. And that’s the real beauty of painting, isn't it?