Twee wandelaars langs een kanaal 1892 - 1893

Curator: Charles-Marie Dulac created this etching, "Twee wandelaars langs een kanaal," sometime between 1892 and 1893. Etchings inherently involve a lot of labor—the artist covers a metal plate with wax, scratches into it, etches it in acid... it’s an intimate yet industrial process. Editor: It feels quiet, almost like a faded memory. The light is soft, the tones muted...like the day is just barely awake, or maybe about to drift off. The whole scene feels filtered through time. Curator: Right, Dulac's choice of etching reflects the wider context of printmaking at the time. It was a very accessible art form, meaning the artwork could be reproduced and dispersed, democratizing art to some extent and broadening its accessibility to various social strata. Editor: I wonder about the two figures in the landscape... They appear so small in relation to everything else—the trees, the canal—that it brings to mind a sense of solitude or being overwhelmed by nature. They’re rendered quite abstractly, though; do you think that reflects some broader artistic aim to represent anonymous human interaction with its surroundings? Curator: The industrial nature of the printing and etched line making produces, ironically, soft and muted shading with only tiny shifts. Dulac evokes what we now see through the softened, romanticized lenses of history; the figures were part of his landscape, which makes me wonder if he considered the effects of these industrializing areas, particularly on the working class... It might be interesting to analyze his intended consumer base and the ways they relate to this scene! Editor: Perhaps. For me, the composition creates a peaceful contemplative mood. A balance is struck, between that human element of the figures who appear to traverse some unknown path, and the canal...the flowing lines juxtaposed with the erect and wind-blown rows of trees on the right give me a bit of vertigo. It makes me consider the journey more than any tangible product of labor. Curator: So, what remains striking to me is the physical making process of an etching versus what it eventually ends up producing in our reception. Something of a technical marvel with deeply complicated contexts around social consumption and impact, but you leave more to aesthetic musings... Editor: Well, to each their own journey with the artwork! Thanks for the conversation; I see this work anew now.