Sketch for Nighttime Rendezvous 1980

Edwin Austin Abbey made this ‘Sketch for Nighttime Rendezvous’ with ink and grey wash, and it's all about atmosphere, right? It’s like a memory, or a dream, loose and suggestive. I love how Abbey uses the wash. It’s so fluid, like he’s letting the scene emerge from the shadows. Look at the way the light catches the figure on the steps, lifting his white shirt out of the darkness. There’s a real sense of drama. The man is lifting his hat and it looks like he is making a promise he may not be able to keep. The whole thing feels kind of theatrical. Abbey was an illustrator and he had a knack for storytelling. I'm thinking of other illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley. What connects these artists? It's that feeling that something is not quite resolved. It's this open-endedness that I think makes a work special.