The Americans at Château-Thierry 1918

Lester George Hornby made this etching, The Americans at Château-Thierry, using thin lines to depict a somber scene from World War One. Can’t you just feel the weight of that sky pressing down, mirroring the heavy mood? Looking at this print, I think of other artists like Otto Dix and Kathe Kollwitz, who also grappled with representing the impact of war. The artist etched each line, building up the image bit by bit. I imagine Hornby moving his hand across the plate, feeling the resistance, figuring out how to describe the tension between rest and the continued march. See those soldiers in the foreground? The way they bunch together suggests exhaustion but also resolve. Those horses seem to be moving, as if ready to proceed through the Chateau. Artists teach each other how to see and express the world, working together to create new ways of understanding what it means to be human.