Lower Box at the Theater 1909

Jean-Louis Forain made this print, Lower Box at the Theater, using etching, a process of mark-making that revels in directness. It’s like sketching with acid, a pretty cool way to make art if you ask me! Look at the quick, scratchy lines defining the figures. The people in the audience behind the ladies in the box are just barely there, like ghosts or memories. The lack of detail gives a sense of atmosphere over precision, and I think that’s pretty great. The lines are not precious, they overlap and sometimes seem to go in the wrong direction, but it is through this that Forain gets to the raw emotion of the moment. It reminds me a little bit of Daumier, who was also interested in the immediacy of human experience and the beauty of the everyday. And like both of them, it embraces the messy, unresolved nature of real life.