Sunset, Tangier

William Douglas Macleod

This dramatic landscape depicts a group of travelers, probably merchants, walking through the desert in Tangiers at sunset. The clouds and encroaching night, plus the long shadows cast by the figures create an abstract pattern and interplay between the light of the setting sun and dark black of the clouds, figures and animals in the foreground.

Mcleod used the delicate lines that can be achieved using the drypoint needle, in effect, directly drawing on the copper plate. The deep black shadows are accomplished by printing the burr that is left as the copper is displaced by the needle. Unless the plate is steel faced only a small number of impressions can be pulled before the burr wears down. This image had an edition of 20, of which this impression is number 13.