Portrait E.D. (Eugène Duchamp) 1913

Jacques Villon made this etching, Portrait E.D. (Eugène Duchamp), using fine, hatched lines to construct a face out of light and shadow. The method is so methodical, it could be mechanical. But look closer: the angles, the direction of the marks, they all create a sense of volume and depth. The texture is implied, rather than real. It's all on the surface, but it feels like there's something more, something beneath. See how the lines around the face get darker, more dense? It gives the impression of a solid form emerging from the ether, as if the sitter is being built up, layer by layer, line by line. The way the artist fragments the image reminds me of Picasso and Braque. Villon, like them, was trying to find a new language for representing the world, one that was less about imitation and more about invention, like music. It is a conversation of seeing that continues to echo through art history.