Second Bucolic: The Property of Virgil on the Banks of the Mincio 1955

Jacques Villon created this aquatint etching titled 'Second Bucolic' at an unknown date. It’s like a dream, isn't it? A very pale dream. A landscape that’s breaking down, or building up, from these soft shapes of colour. It feels like Villon is feeling his way through the scene, allowing the process to direct him. He’s working in an in-between space where things are just becoming, never quite resolving. Look at that river, it almost looks like it is painted with watercolour, it is so subtle. The cows and the shepherd are rendered in these soft oranges and purples that could almost be anything. This print pulls you in, asking you to take your time and piece things together. It kind of reminds me of Arthur Dove, particularly in its embrace of abstraction and its connection to nature. In the end, this image is more about feeling than knowing, more about the poetry of form than any single reading. Art is really about the conversation and the exchange of ideas over time.