Evening Light 1913

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this etching, Evening Light, probably sometime in the early 20th century. Look at the intricacy of the lines, hatching together to conjure these boats nestled in the harbour, the figures, the evening sky. You can almost see him there, can't you? I bet he was standing on the pier, squinting to capture the moment, the way the light flickered across the water and the boats, using a needle to scratch into the metal plate, each line a record of fleeting light. I can see him wiping the plate, inking it, pressing it onto paper. The dark lines create a sense of depth, pulling you into the scene. It reminds me of Whistler’s etchings of the Thames, that same interest in capturing the ephemeral nature of light and atmosphere. There’s something timeless about it, this quiet moment captured in ink. It speaks to a long tradition of artists trying to capture the world around them, and the way light shapes our experience of it.