Doge's Palace 1902

David Young Cameron made this etching of the Doge’s Palace, and you can almost feel the bite of the acid on the plate. The magic of printmaking is in the alchemy, this controlled degradation that makes an image appear. Look closely, and you can see how the artist coaxes detail from a network of lines. The facade of the Palace, with its rhythm of arches and windows, emerges from the subtle gradations of tone. It’s like he’s building the image from the ground up, each line contributing to the overall structure, a process that feels both deliberate and intuitive. Notice the reflections in the water, achieved with a deft touch, mirroring the Palace above. There’s a similar architectural precision to the etchings of Piranesi, yet Cameron brings his own sensibility, more atmospheric than archaeological. The Doge’s Palace isn’t just a building here, it’s an apparition, shimmering in the Venetian light, a testament to the power of art to transform a place into a feeling.