Mother and Son 1922

With simple lines and a soft tone, Chagall’s etching of a ‘Mother and Son’ renders a tender image. See how the plate has bitten into the paper, leaving a trace of the artist’s hand? I imagine him, hunched over the plate, acid fumes tickling his nose, trying to coax an image from his mind, through his hand, onto the copper. There is something in the softness of the lines that speaks of memory and maybe a little melancholy. Notice the way the mother’s dress seems to float around her, like a cloud or dream. The two figures are linked, yet separate, each caught in their own world. What binds them is a line, as fine as a thread, as strong as love. Etching like this is an intimate medium – it lacks the loud drama of say, Abstract Expressionism. But there is a quiet power in the way it invites us in, asking us to slow down and consider. In art, as in life, sometimes the most profound statements are whispered, not shouted.