The Pont Marie (Le Pont Marie) 1924

This is The Pont Marie, and it was etched by Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac. Here’s what strikes me: the bridge itself seems to be emerging, almost ghostlike, from the artist's memory, or maybe he worked it out after the fact. I imagine him standing there by the water, shivering, making these lines to try and capture how the light fell that morning. I love the way the trees are bending in the wind - you can almost feel it. I'm sure Segonzac had to work fast, before the light shifted, before the scene changed on him. But he did capture something, didn't he? Something real about that place, that moment in time. Etching is an art of constraint - you are literally carving lines on a plate - but within those limitations, artists can be wonderfully free, as you see here. Artists have always found ways of inspiring one another, carrying the creative spirit across time.