The Beggar 1903

Henri Fantin-Latour made this etching, The Beggar, with needles and acid on a metal plate, layering tone through tiny marks. Look at the way the figure emerges from the dark foliage. I imagine Fantin-Latour hunched over the plate, carefully building up the image, cross-hatching, wiping, and re-etching, trying to get the balance just right. See how the figure is both present and dissolving into the background. The soft light drapes across the figure. The whole scene shimmers. It's like a memory, a half-remembered dream. Fantin-Latour was part of a generation grappling with how to represent the world, how to find new ways of seeing and feeling. There's something about the quiet intimacy of this etching that speaks to a broader artistic project of finding beauty in the everyday, and poetry in the mundane. That pursuit still resonates with artists today. We all feed off each other, you know?