Coquette 1921

Ernst Oppler created this print called ‘Coquette’ using etching, it's now housed at the Met. The approach to mark making is just lovely, isn’t it? A real sense of the hand being present, even though this is a print and not a drawing. The etching has this ghostly quality, a bit like memory itself. The dancer almost floats off the page. Notice how the ruffles of her skirt are built up from many tiny marks, like a cloud of graphite dust. The paper isn’t pristine white but has a creamy quality that adds to the sense of age. Look closely, and you can see the plate mark where the metal pressed into the paper. It reminds me of Degas’s pastels of dancers, but with a lighter touch. I’m always fascinated by how artists depict movement. Oppler captures the dancer mid-motion, a fleeting moment of grace. Art is always a conversation across time, each artist building on what came before. It’s this ambiguity that makes art so endlessly compelling.