Oude vrouw in gebed 1877 - 1937

Henriëtte de Vries etched this image of an old woman in prayer, and I wonder what was going through her head as she worked on the plate. It's all about light here, isn't it? The way it catches the edge of that little shelf of objects on the wall, how it defines the woman's face and hands in contrast to the dark corner. I can see Vries, bent over the plate, patiently layering those tiny lines, building up the shadows and highlights with such care. She must have worked slowly, deliberately, so committed to the image she was building. Maybe she was thinking about Rembrandt, all the ways he wrung emotion out of dark and light in his prints. Or maybe she was just lost in the quiet intensity of the moment, feeling the weight of the needle in her hand, lost in the act of making. That's where the magic happens, when you're not quite sure what you're doing, but you keep going anyway.