Honfleur Le Vieux, "Leurs Maisons" 1912

Fernand Combes drew these crooked houses in Honfleur with graphite on paper in 1912. I can almost feel the artist leaning in, squinting at the wonky architecture. You know, drawing something so irregular must have felt a bit like trying to capture a dream, like the buildings could shift or wobble any minute. The lines are so gentle, like he's feeling his way around the shapes. And the shading? It’s like he's coaxing the light to dance on the page. I wonder if Combes was thinking about the people who lived in these houses while he drew them, like the buildings themselves are characters in a story. It reminds me of other artists who were drawn to the everyday, the quirky, like maybe Philip Guston or even those early urban sketchers. There is something so intimate in trying to record a slice of life. It becomes a piece of history, and a testament to the artist's vision. We are all just influencing each other across time.