Autumn Days, engraved by the Brothers Dalziel Possibly 1882

Curator: This is “Autumn Days,” an engraving by the Brothers Dalziel after Frederick Walker, held here at the Tate. Editor: My first thought? It feels like a half-remembered dream, all swirling leaves and hidden figures. Curator: Absolutely. Walker, who died so young, at just 35, captured a wistful mood. The Dalziel Brothers were key here, though, translating Walker's painting into the very reproducible form of an engraving. Editor: Right, the materiality of it. We see the labor involved in making art accessible, less about the artist's singular touch and more about industrial distribution. Curator: It's both, I think. The hand of the artist rendered and then multiplied through skilled craftsmanship. Editor: Maybe it is that tension, between the individual and the mass-produced, that gives the image its haunting quality. Curator: Precisely! The contrast heightens that strange beauty.