L'Île de la Cité, Paris 1926

This etching of L'Île de la Cité in Paris, made by Henry Rushbury, captures a moment in time. It's like he was standing there, pulling the image from the world, with these tiny marks that build up into buildings and bridges. You get the sense of his hand moving, scratching away at the surface, trying to capture the light on the water. I can imagine him looking at the Seine, thinking about other artists, and how they captured the same subject; Turner or Whistler perhaps? The precision and detail are impressive, but it's the overall atmosphere that gets me. There’s an ongoing conversation between artists across time, with each one speaking to the other through the language of mark-making.