Suzanne 1927

Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac made this etching, called "Suzanne," by dragging a fine point across a plate. The marks are so delicate, they barely make a dent in the paper! I can just picture Segonzac hunched over the plate, scratching away with the needle, figuring out the form of Suzanne through a kind of dance. He's trying to capture something about her pose, maybe even her inner life, with just a few lines. You can see him thinking, experimenting, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. What was she thinking? This feels like a very intimate, personal kind of work. Was Suzanne his wife, or a close friend? It reminds me of the way artists like Picasso or Matisse used line to capture the essence of their subjects. All these artists in conversation, using their tools to get down a likeness. Like the world depends on it.