Corsicaanse herder 1925

Lodewijk Schelfhout etched this portrait of a Corsican shepherd sometime around 1915. I can imagine him, plate in hand, carefully layering the image, pulling the lines out of the darkness, with a fine nib. I love how the figure emerges from the shadows with these tight, etched lines. They seem to vibrate, full of energy, communicating a quiet intensity. He's solid, but also a little mysterious, as if he might dissolve back into the landscape at any moment. The hat especially is great; it's both totally flat and full of volume and shade. It puts me in mind of early modernist printmakers like the German Expressionists. Artists are always talking to one another, across time and place, each making their own mark, you know? It’s a conversation, an exchange of ideas that inspires and pushes us all forward. There’s no right or wrong way to experience it.