Le Fer Qui Donne Le Pain 1905

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ created ‘Le Fer Qui Donne Le Pain’, translating to ‘The Iron That Gives Bread’, with what looks like graphite or charcoal. He's working with a pretty muted palette. You know, those grayscale tones are great for drawing attention to the way marks are made, bringing focus to the artistic process itself. Looking at the piece, it's all about texture. You can almost feel the roughness of the stone, the way the light catches on the figure’s skin. Look at the bottom of the figure, you can almost see where each line starts and stops. Thinking about artists who play with similar themes, someone like Gustave Courbet comes to mind. Both artists are concerned with portraying labor and the everyday lives of working people. There's a powerful conversation happening here, echoing across time. In the end, art is all about embracing those open-ended questions and possibilities.