Laag water in de Theems 1910

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this etching, *Low Water in the Thames*, at an unknown date. It’s a scene of London's working river, full of boats and bridges, captured with a flurry of lines. The texture here is all about those etched lines, creating depth and shadow. See how they build up to define the bridge supports, or scatter to suggest the shimmer on the water. There’s a real sense of place, but it's also slightly dreamy, softened by the monochrome palette. I find myself focusing on the barrels in the boats; there's a kind of rhythmic quality in the way they're stacked, a very subtle detail. MacLaughlan reminds me a little of Whistler, both in the subject matter and that love of tonal nuance. It’s like they’re both exploring the poetry in the everyday, finding beauty in the industrial and the mundane. What I like most is the way the image embraces ambiguity, giving us a glimpse of a moment, not a definitive statement.