A Visitor from Delphi 1938

George Joseph Mess made "A Visitor from Delphi" using engraving and drypoint; that laborious process of mark making—carving and scratching, scraping and burishing—really comes through here. I can't help thinking about Mess working on this plate. Did he start with the sky, maybe, and then move down, down to the lone figure with his staff? All those tiny marks, building up the image, tone by tone! It’s a very tonal, dark landscape, but the engraver really used that to create an incredible mood. You can see the influence of printmakers like Whistler, but also a real commitment to the American scene and landscape. I wonder if the visitor is the artist himself, a kind of symbolic self-portrait? Painting and printmaking, they're different, but it's all about marks, right? It’s a beautiful piece, full of atmosphere.