ulously observed and rendered gradations of shadow and sudden contrasts of pure whiteness. Made with conte crayon on heavily textured Ingres paper, they deal with forms both clearly illuminated and completely lost in darkness. But like Rembrandt's and Morandi's etchings, inside that darkness there is a wonderful sparkle. This is achieved by a c ollaboration of conte crayon and paper, the lights left blank and untouched, the blackest areas produced by such vigorous downward pressure that the paper's miniscule hills and valleys are flattened. All the in-between gradations of light and dark are captured with such subtlety that it is hard to believe they were made by a man with a crayon in his hand.
Contemporaries of Seurat in Paris certainly imitated Rembrandt's etchings in their drawings and prints, some almost to the point of deliberate derivation. But Seurat used what he learned from Rembrandt for his own unprecedented aims. In the process he, like Morandi, made images in black, white, and all the nuances of tone between that are consummately his vision.
The crosscurrents perceivable in the images on this page shed telling light on the individualities of the three artists. Yet it seems certain enough that Seurat's supreme drawings would not have been what they are without Rembrandt's remarkably powerful etchings there first. And Morandi's moving and deeply pondered prints would not have been what they are without the achievements of both older artists.