Palazzo dei Cammerlenghi 1925

James McBey made this etching, Palazzo dei Cammerlenghi, sometime around 1925. It's all about process, isn't it? Those cross-hatched lines building form and space. The way he’s built up the darks and lights to give us a sense of depth. I’m interested in the way McBey uses line to describe the scene, it has a real sense of immediacy. The texture of the water, the way the buildings rise up, the mass of gondolas clustered together. Look closely at the lone gondola at the front of the image, the way the lines are more sparse here, giving it a sense of lightness and movement, it's almost disappearing into the nothingness of the water. It’s really quite beautiful. The marks here remind me of Whistler's etchings. Both artists share a fascination with capturing the atmosphere of a place through a kind of shorthand of lines. But where Whistler's work feels more studied and precise, McBey's has a looseness that invites you in. Art's an ongoing conversation, right?