Untitled (Portrait of the Artist's Mother) c. 1905

Joseph Stella made this portrait of his mother with etching on a plate. The whole image is built up from a network of lines, a real process of layering. Check out how the lines create this intense darkness in the shawl around her head. It almost swallows her up, like she is disappearing before our eyes. And yet, there’s this beautiful play of light on her face and the pages of the book. It's like she’s caught between worlds, the darkness and the light, memory and presence. I keep thinking about Goya, who also used etching to make political statements, but this image feels more intimate, more personal. The scratches that define this image feel tender. I think about the way we trace the lines on our own mother's faces, seeing time passing, change happening. Ultimately, this is what Stella does here. He preserves a fleeting moment, a feeling, a history, in a web of delicate lines.