The Calf Auction 1924

Clare Leighton pulled this print, "The Calf Auction," and you can almost feel the wood resisting, can't you? I imagine Clare really digging in, carving away at the block to create these figures gathered around, the auctioneer, and that wary calf in the foreground. It makes you wonder about the life of the animal, and its future! Leighton manages to give the print an emotional quality - something that other artists like Kollwitz, come to mind. It's tough to create such a dynamic scene with such stark contrasts. It's either black or white! A wood engraving is so different from painting, but you can see how the lines become textures, the textures become feelings. She’s part of an ongoing conversation between artists, constantly pushing and pulling at the possibilities of what a line, a mark, can do.