Afternoon Stroll

The composition implied by the title is a walking scene — a single girl, often accompanied by a hare, fox, or oversized bird, traversing an indeterminate landscape that hovers between garden, path, and dreamscape. Ando works the intaglio plate with a combination of fine etched line for the figure and aquatint for tonal grounds, then prints onto a heavier base sheet with chine collé adhering a thin sheet of Japanese paper that subtly tints the background or the figure's dress. Hand coloring is applied after printing with diluted watercolour, giving each impression in the edition a slightly different cast. Afternoon Stroll fits within the procession motif that runs through Ando's prints, where a small, formally dressed figure moves laterally across the sheet in the manner of an Edwardian cut-out or paper doll, lending the image the quiet ceremony of a child's storybook tableau even as the surrounding fauna register as faintly uncanny.