Quai Henry VI (Dieppe, Quai Henri IV) 1915

Walter Sickert made this etching, Quai Henry VI, capturing a scene from Dieppe. He didn’t use paint, he used a metal plate and acid! Imagine him hunched over the plate, scratching lines into the surface, dipping it in acid, proofing it, and then scratching some more. It must have been quite a dance of trial and error, but he makes it look effortless. The composition feels very casual. The figures are just kinda hanging out there. The scratching, the hatching and cross-hatching, gives it a very immediate, almost anxious, feel, like he wanted to get it down quickly before the moment disappeared. You know he’s part of a conversation, with Whistler and Degas, about what it means to capture modern life. There’s a kind of radical intimacy to this work. It's a record of a moment, a conversation, a feeling, and it invites us to join in. Artists are always having conversations with each other, across time and space, and aren't we lucky to eavesdrop!