Sint-Pieterspoort in Amsterdam 1912

This etching of Sint-Pieterspoort in Amsterdam, by Herman Heuff, is a dance of darks and lights, a kind of moody improvisation. You can almost feel Heuff feeling his way through the scene, letting the shadows guide him. The surface has a tactile quality, doesn't it? You can see the ghost of each tiny, etched line, the way they build up to create these rich, velvety blacks. Look closely at the archway itself: see how the lines get denser, thicker, as if Heuff was pressing harder, trying to capture the weight of the stone, the sense of enclosure. Then, just beyond the arch, a figure emerges, almost swallowed by the light. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi's etchings of Rome, that same obsession with architectural detail, the way light and shadow can transform the familiar into something strange and dreamlike. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling that gets passed down, transformed, and reinterpreted across time.