Aanbidding van Christus 1931

Lodewijk Schelfhout created this etching, Aanbidding van Christus, at some point in his life. Look at the marks, so definite, like scratches on a surface. It makes me think about how many lines are needed to create an image. Too few and it falls apart, too many and the whole thing just becomes overworked. I can imagine Schelfhout in the studio, carefully scratching the plate, thinking hard about light and shadow. There is a real drama to the scene, a contrast between the dark areas of the image and the highlights that bring out the forms. He has that kind of graphic sensibility you see in other etchers, like Whistler. It’s like they're searching for a kind of essence, a stripped-down language of seeing. The whole scene feels ancient. It reminds us that artists are always in dialogue with the past, borrowing, stealing, and transforming ideas across time. Each mark an echo of those who came before.