Roof Pattern c. 1935

Elizabeth Lentz Horter made this etching, titled "Roof Pattern," sometime in the mid 20th century, using a monochrome palette to depict a cityscape blanketed in snow. What I really notice here is the mark-making, like a kind of delicate scratching, to bring out the buildings. There’s a clear love of texture, it’s everywhere. I am drawn to the way the snow sits on each roof, a thick impasto of white, each tiny fleck of the etching process becoming a miniature ice crystal. The marks feel intuitive, like Horter responded directly to the scene with a freedom of expression. Look at the variations in tone, from the deep blacks of the buildings to the subtle grays of the snow. It reminds me of some of the early 20th century American Modernists, like John Marin, who used a similar kind of energetic mark-making to capture the feeling of a place. "Roof Pattern" invites us to see the beauty in the everyday, to find patterns and rhythms in the world around us.