Chick, standing to the left, some poppies to the right 1920

Jan Mankes made this print of a chick with poppies using etching. It's like he’s scratching a story onto the plate, all in black and white. Look at how the lines dance around the chick, giving it a fluffy, almost dreamy quality. The texture is everything here. It’s not just about what we see, but how the ink sits on the paper, how those tiny lines create depth. Notice that one little dark spot, almost like a comma, right on the chick’s side? It's a small gesture, but it adds so much weight, grounding the image and making it feel complete. Mankes had a thing for quiet, intimate scenes, often of nature. You might find some of the same kind of magic in the work of someone like Samuel Palmer, that feeling of finding something epic in the everyday. Art is like a conversation, always echoing and evolving.