Ved sengetid i herberget 1910

Jens Birkholm made this etching, Ved sengetid i herberget, sometime between 1884 and 1915. It's all about process, you know? How you get there is as important as where you end up. The textures are incredible - look how the light catches on those figures, all those dark, scratchy lines working together. It's not just about showing us a scene, but about the act of seeing itself. There is a kind of rawness to this, like a sketch straight from the mind. Focus on the figure in the middle. See how Birkholm uses the lines to build him up. It reminds me a bit of the work of Käthe Kollwitz, who also used etching to depict working class subjects, and the humanity of people on the margins. They both understood that art is not about perfection, but about truth. Isn't that the real beauty of it all?