Eternal Jacob 1952

Benton Spruance made this monochrome lithograph, Eternal Jacob, using a printmaking stone. Just imagine him bent over, drawing, erasing, drawing again. This feels like a moment of crisis, doesn’t it? Jacob wrestles, grapples, clings, resists. Is the figure an angel, a demon, or just an idea? The composition has this spiraling, almost claustrophobic feel. But look at those wings—the delicate, almost fluttering strokes that evoke feathers. I wonder what Spruance was thinking about when he made this. Maybe he was wrestling with his own ideas, his own demons, or maybe he was trying to capture something eternal, something beyond the everyday. There’s a raw, almost desperate energy in those lines. It reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, or even Goya, in their darker moments, those artists who weren't afraid to stare into the abyss. Each artist is having this ongoing conversation with the past, grappling with their own ideas and, hopefully, lighting a little spark in the viewer’s mind.