Sunrise at Tarragona 1911

Curator: This etching by James McBey, titled "Sunrise at Tarragona," was completed in 1911. Its tranquil yet hazy subject is, as you can tell, rendered via the printmaking technique of etching. Editor: The mood here is immediate. The blurred details create a serene, dreamlike ambiance; one almost feels a gentle breeze carrying the day’s earliest light. There is almost no color to the print besides beige and umber, which reinforces this airy atmosphere. Curator: Notice how McBey employs the etching medium to its fullest extent. He uses line weight masterfully to create depth and atmospheric perspective. The concentration of etched lines is densest in the left foreground around the boats. It diffuses across the harbor, fading to almost nothing on the right edge. Editor: To me, boats often suggest a threshold, a space between places, both material and mental. McBey sets them in quiet waters at the foot of a historic city. Consider that "Tarragona" harkens back to antiquity, as it's an ancient Roman settlement. Its symbolism could suggest liminality between eras, a pause on history's vast continuum. Curator: Fascinating perspective. However, one could analyze it in terms of pure pictorial space. See how the strong horizontal line of the distant shore interacts with the vertical strokes that create the reflections of the boats and masts on the still surface of the water? There’s an interesting play between stasis and motion embedded in its composition. Editor: I would also point out the symbol of the sun, although in this rendering, sunrise manifests primarily as the gentle illumination that subtly permeates the scene. That light carries a feeling of potential and anticipation, typical in symbolic depictions of sunrise across many cultures. A symbol of renewed hope, as it were. Curator: I still believe the overall achievement rests in how McBey uses etching to manipulate our perception. He manages to distill the essence of a fleeting moment into a remarkably compact visual statement. Editor: The interplay of historical weight and the quiet sunrise in McBey's vision certainly offer fertile ground for contemplation, indeed.