Low Tide at Leigh-on-Sea 1911

Charles Henry Baskett made this intaglio print called *Low Tide at Leigh-on-Sea*, and you can really see his process in the final piece. It’s all about the act of making, a kind of dance between the artist and the plate. Looking closely, the textures feel almost photographic, yet there’s an undeniable hand-made quality. See how Baskett coaxes a range of tones from a single color, building atmosphere with layers of delicate marks. My eyes keep returning to that plume of smoke in the upper right – it’s like a ghostly apparition, created from nothing but the absence of ink. It’s the most ephemeral thing in the whole composition, made permanent by the act of printing. Baskett was working around the same time as Whistler, and I can see some echoes of that artist's tonal approach to landscape in this print. But it’s more than just influence; it’s like they’re both having a conversation about how to capture the quiet drama of the natural world.