Woningen langs een rivier in Batavia met een vrouw die kleding wast c. 1921

Willem Witsen created this etching, *Woningen langs een rivier in Batavia met een vrouw die kleding wast*, and look at the textures he coaxes from the plate. I can imagine him, sleeves rolled up, leaning over the acid bath, watching the image slowly, slowly emerge. Notice how the reflections in the river give us a broken, almost cubist version of the buildings, reminding me of some of the wonky geometries you find in Cezanne. There's a real sympathy for the everyday here; he's not painting some grand historical scene, but a woman doing laundry, the buildings she lives near. I appreciate how Witsen embraces the mundane. It’s like he's saying, "Hey, even the ordinary has its own kind of beauty, you just need to look closely." And isn’t that what art is all about?