First Bucolic: Virgil Expelled from the Earth by a Centurion 1955

Jacques Villon made this print, First Bucolic: Virgil Expelled from the Earth by a Centurion, with colour etching and aquatint. The shapes are built from an accumulation of lines, like the artist is thinking through the forms as he builds them. There's something so satisfying in seeing how Villon lets his lines describe the planes that make up the figures. Look how the etching catches in the paper, almost like it’s been scored into the surface. The planes are coloured in transparent washes of pink, blue, yellow and green, with the colours modulating our experience of depth and space. Each mark feels intuitive, like the artist is working it out as he goes, letting the process guide the outcome. It's as if Villon is sharing his thought process with us, revealing the choices and decisions that shape the final image. Like Picasso, Villon's process is about building up the picture through abstraction. They were both influenced by Cezanne, who famously said that everything in nature can be reduced to the cone, the sphere, and the cylinder. You can see this same principle at work in Villon’s composition. It suggests art is an ongoing conversation, where artists learn from each other and build upon the ideas of those who came before.