Old Lace 1915

Childe Hassam's etching, "Old Lace," captures a scene with a bridge over water, all rendered in delicate lines. I can just picture him, maybe standing right there by the water, squinting, trying to catch the light just right. He’s working those lines, thin and precise, like he's knitting with a needle, and look at how the water moves – it's almost like it’s breathing. And those little boats sitting there, so still, they’re like secrets waiting to be told. Hassam, like many artists, was probably looking at what others were doing – maybe Whistler's etchings or even some of the Japanese prints that were floating around at the time, all that line work. It's like they're all talking to each other, these artists from different times and places, each adding their own little bit to the conversation. It's not just about what you see, but about how you see it, and how that vision gets passed on, changed, and made new again by each artist who picks up a tool.