Homeward Bound c. 1932

Eugene Higgins made this print, Homeward Bound, and its swirly marks and monochrome palette makes me imagine it came into being through trial and error. I can see the artist experimenting and pushing the etching needle, trying to pull all this feeling into a single image. I empathize with Higgins, I imagine him thinking about his own family, maybe his mother or wife, and that quiet intensity of returning home after a day’s labor. Look at those marks making up the figure’s dress and hair - it almost looks like she is made of the landscape. The etching is thick in some places, like the lower portion of the figures, which adds to the sense of groundedness, and thin in others, such as the sky, creating depth and atmosphere. Painters are in conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Higgins reminds me of Kathe Kollwitz, another artist of his time. Both artists leave us with a haunting reminder of the human condition, a testament to the power of art as an ongoing form of embodied expression.