The Harbor, Quebec, Canada c. 1910

This etching, "The Harbor, Quebec, Canada," by H. Ivan Neilson, is a real beauty—so evocative. The dense network of lines creates the ships, the water, and the buildings beyond, all emerging from a silvery ground. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the plate, etching lines with a kind of delicate intensity. I imagine Neilson, standing there, smelling the briny air, and trying to capture the essence of this bustling harbor scene. The way the reflections shimmer on the water, achieved through these tiny, precise marks, reminds you that even a scene full of industry and commerce has a quiet, reflective quality to it. It’s hard not to think about Whistler's etchings when looking at this; Neilson, like many artists, was in dialogue with his contemporaries. He saw what they were doing, tried it, and then found his own voice through the medium. Artists are always in conversation, riffing off each other, and that’s the beauty of it. There's no end, only continuous evolution.