Schepen bij Quiberon 1927

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print called 'Schepen bij Quiberon' using etching, a process where lines are incised into a metal plate to hold the ink. Look closely at the rocks on the right side of the image; the texture looks like a topographical map. There is a real push-pull there, of dark and light. The dark ink almost seems to eat into the light of the paper, doesn’t it? The artist has embraced the physicality of the medium, revealing the marks left by the etching process. The subject matter, though, is a little bit mysterious. Is the lone figure on the beach next to the grounded sailboat looking out towards the other ships or turning away from them, toward us? There’s a sense of longing embedded in the simplicity of the image, a meditation on solitude and the relationship between man and nature. Schelfhout’s image reminds me of the prints of Whistler, with their emphasis on atmosphere and subjective experience, each print speaking to the ongoing conversation of artists through time.