Mediterranean Wash Day 1939

This print, Mediterranean Wash Day, was made by Samuel Chamberlain, and looking at it, I can almost feel the sun and smell the salt air. The whole scene is built up from so many tiny marks, all those little lines are almost vibrating on the surface. Can you imagine the artist, bent over the plate, carefully building up the image bit by bit? It’s amazing how Chamberlain manages to suggest the weight of those ships, and the bulk of the land beyond, all with such delicate marks. I feel like he’s asking, how much detail can I cram in? How much can I leave out? There's a real feeling of being there, in that moment. I can imagine other artists looking at this and thinking, yeah, I want to capture that same sense of place, that feeling of being present in the world, and in its making, it captures something so fleeting. It's a conversation across time.