Ragdale Hall 1931 - 1935

F. L. Griggs made this etching, Ragdale Hall, sometime in his lifetime. It’s all in shades of brown. I imagine him hunched over the plate, carefully scratching away at the surface to create this image of a grand old house, with a couple of ghostly figures in the foreground and what appears to be a graveyard in the front of the building. I can almost feel the weight of history in this piece. The house looms large, a silent witness to generations past. I wonder what Griggs was thinking as he created it? Was he drawn to the architecture, the way the light and shadow played across the building’s facade? Or was it something more, a sense of nostalgia for a time long gone? The way the lines are etched, they remind me of other printmakers like Piranesi, who also captured the grandeur and decay of architecture. It’s like they’re all having a conversation across time, each adding their own unique perspective.