Autour le Chateau des Comtes de Flandre Gand 1913

Jules de Bruycker made this print of the Chateau des Comtes de Flandre in Gand, using etching on paper. De Bruycker really digs into the plate, doesn't he? Creating this incredible range of textures and tones. Look at the way he renders the old stone walls of the castle, so dense and filled with cross-hatching. Then there's this almost frantic energy in the foreground. The whole scene has this kind of brooding, gothic feel. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s etchings of Rome, all drama and heavy shadows. But unlike Piranesi, de Bruycker brings a real sense of human activity to the scene. Those figures scurrying about, with their umbrellas, give the image this feeling of everyday life unfolding amidst these monumental ruins. There’s a real conversation happening here. A conversation between old and new, grandeur and the mundane. I love how the artist embraces that ambiguity, leaving space for us to bring our own feelings and experiences to the work.