My Old Luxembourg (Mon vieux Luxembourg) 1935

Jacques Villon made this etching, of what I assume is Luxembourg, sometime between 1895 and 1936. Look at these etched marks! Like a dense swarm of tiny lines, all working together to conjure a cityscape and some figures. I imagine Villon standing there, maybe a little chilly, squinting at the scene before him. He's trying to capture not just the look of the buildings, but the feel of the place, the rhythm of daily life. It’s like he's wrestling with the metal plate, coaxing it to reveal the essence of what he sees. You know, sometimes, when I’m painting, I feel like I’m in a similar kind of dance, pushing and pulling, until the painting starts to breathe on its own. The way he layers those lines, some areas dark and dense, others light and airy, reminds me that every artist is in conversation with the artists that came before them. They're all contributing to this ongoing exploration of how we see and experience the world.