Bertha E. Jaques, born Covington, OH - The Tangle, Chioggia - ca. 1912 - T-Shirt

This ca. 1912 etching by Bertha E. Jaques shows the crowded harbor of Chioggia, Italy, where fishing boats, sails and rigging fill the canal from edge to edge.

Visual Elements & Composition

The print is built from dense linework. Masts, ropes and furled sails crowd the frame, so the eye moves through a tangle of verticals and diagonals rather than resting on a single subject. Nothing is staged for the viewer. The boats sit where the work of the day left them, and the effect is busy, layered and atmospheric, in the soft tonal manner of the etching medium.

Meaning & Symbolism

Chioggia sits at the southern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon and was a working fishing port. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artists were drawn to it for its traditional life away from the main canals of Venice. Jaques made the print during her European travels, and it reflects her role in the American etching revival and her founding membership of the Chicago Society of Etchers. The title points to the knot of masts and rigging that defined the harbor, which stands for the industry of the local community and the beauty found in everyday labor. The print also records sail-powered fishing before modern industry reshaped the Adriatic coast.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A print this dense rewards a close look, and a tee keeps it in view as you move through the day. The design is printed across the front of the shirt, so the rigging and sails read as a single image worn on the body. Its fine linework and the layered tones of the etching carry over to the shirt, which makes the harbor a piece of wearable art rather than a scene seen from a distance.