My Dream
Rodolphe Bresdin
French, 1822–1885
1883
This small etching is Bresdin’s dreamlike harbor scene in which he uses dense, nervy lines to fuse buildings, trees, boats, and tiny figures into a single uncanny, visionary composition.
What strikes you first is the thicket of minutely incised marks that resolve into spires, masts and a solitary statue on a pier, so that the nearer you peer the more a bustling, almost fantastical world of detail and texture emerges.
Made near the end of the 19th century, this work moves etching away from simple topographical depiction toward allegory and the unconscious, anticipating Symbolist and later Surrealist ideas about landscape as a projection of the imagination.
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
composition: 7 1/4 x 4 3/4" (18.4 x 12 cm); sheet: 14 11/16 x 10 5/16" (37.3 x 26.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Dr. F. H. Hirschland
Accession
171.1962
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions