[Eclair Morton] I'm Eclair Morton and I'm the Associate Conservator of Works of Art on Paper here at the BMA. I love this print, because at first it looks a little rough and mysterious. And as you get closer, it really draws you in and becomes more and more realistic as the scene slowly reveals itself to you. It has this hand done, scratchy feel. And that's because here he has elements that were etched into the plate, but then when he's inked the plate, he's gone in and in a very sort of painterly fashion, smudged and removed parts of the ink to create a variation. What is on the plate are the trees and the houses and the laneway. Everything else is in the inking. So each one is a monoprint, a unique piece of art. So he could have done a daytime version of this, a rainy version of this, a bright version of this. The brightest part in this print, the moon, right in the center that sort of draws you in, is where he would've removed all of the ink with, you know, today we might use a Q-tip, but probably a little bit of cotton. And it definitely feels like you're entering into this town or this village and being drawn into it, out of the darkness, from the forest as night is falling.

This black-and-white print of a rural landscape at night measures approximately 12 and a half inches high and nine and a half inches wide. Overall, the print is loosely drawn, with lots of scratchy texture and some heavily inked areas creating passages of shadow. A long country road stretches out from the picture plane into the distance. Trees and brush perch on a steep embankment on the left-hand side of the road, leaning rightwards over the path. A crescent moon in a cloudy sky is at the center of the composition, lighting the way. The artist wiped away the ink on the printing plate to create the moon, which offers a high level of contrast for this single source of light in an otherwise dark scene.