Tavern on the Way to Billancourt 1905

This is an etching made by Auguste-Louis Lepère, of a Tavern on the Way to Billancourt. Imagine the artist with the plate, inking, wiping, and printing the image, repeating the gestures over and over again. The marks are so precise, they appear as a dense choreography of lines. Etching can be a very physical process and I can just imagine the artist scratching into the metal, building up the image bit by bit. The lines lean into the architecture and wind-blown trees, lending a sense of movement and rhythm to the scene. The scene is a bustling tavern, full of folks stopping for a quick drink. Lepère was part of a wave of printmakers who turned to urban and rural scenes. It reminds me a bit of Whistler's etchings of London. Artists like Lepère and Whistler were in conversation, each inspiring and pushing the other. Painting is never just a solo act but part of a wider exchange of ideas.