Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the British Cabinet 1922

Walter Tittle made this print of Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the British Cabinet, using a metal plate. It’s all about the line here, isn't it? You can see the artist thinking through the marks, almost like a stream of consciousness. Look closely, and you'll see the cross-hatching that gives Hankey's face volume and depth, this sort of scratching and scribbling. It’s not just about what it represents, but the physical act of making it, the pressure of the tool, the way the light catches on the ink. You can almost feel Tittle's hand moving across the plate. It reminds me a bit of some of Otto Dix’s portraiture, though maybe less overtly harsh. The starkness of the medium invites us to consider the subject in unvarnished terms. Maybe that’s the point, to see beyond the surface, to scratch away at the facade and reveal something essential about the man. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing and thinking that's always evolving.