A Whistler etching caught my eye the other day. It was sitting perched in a store window and after a moment I went inside to get a closer look. A simple, small and beautiful work, it showed the talent in Whistler’s hand for subtle and small details as well as his awkward disinterest or dabbling in the foreground.

Then the gallery directed me towards some other etchings, as well as the odd Ernst “Sign for a School for Pirates“, and I wandered a bit until I noticed an original and giant Winslow Homer etching titled “Eight Bells”.

Wow.

I could go on about the history of this work, and how hard it must have been to transfer to an etching, but it’s well documented on the web already. I just wanted to say I was completely blown away by the amazing detail he managed to capture in the water and clouds, and that I was really surprised to see how he supposedly hid the image of his father in a small section. Can you find it?

The effect in this work is so dramatic, steganography or not, it really has to be seen in person to be believed.