The Escorial from the Seat of Phillip (Phillip's Chair) c. 1903

Curator: This evocative cityscape before us is titled "The Escorial from the Seat of Phillip (Phillip's Chair)", rendered around 1903 by Joseph Pennell. Editor: Immediately, it feels so isolated, almost looming. The dark charcoal rendering adds this dramatic, melancholic quality. Did Pennell sit right there in Phillip's chair and just sketch it out? Imagine the king… the worries… Curator: Well, the location, "Phillip's Chair," refers to a rocky outcrop, not a literal chair. But you touch on something interesting. This print and drawing reflects both architectural grandeur and the vastness of the landscape. Pennell made extensive use of charcoal on paper here to really get at that, and that allows a ready contrast against the natural materials found in and around the site, and by extension, in materials available to artists who came after him. Editor: Exactly, you can almost smell the stone and the earth! It's like he's trying to capture more than just what he sees, it is the *feeling* of being in that exact spot and making art. Curator: Indeed. It is more than meets the eye; there is an underlying critique here as well, regarding industry’s effect on the rural and architectural character of the cityspace. The work reminds us of the labor required for monumental constructions such as the Escorial; while there is much natural beauty that one finds around Madrid, such splendor obscures many different levels of hard human effort. Editor: Oh, it is not what *it is*, it's what *it hides*! Fascinating. Curator: And furthermore, what is obscured and foregrounded via the choice of particular raw materials in representing this historical, material labor: paper and charcoal, a very different sort of building block compared to the stones he depicts here. Editor: Thinking about it, there's almost something… haunted about this. That dark against light is so expressive of time's impact. Curator: Well, on that spectral note, shall we move on to the next piece? Editor: Yes, let's leave Phillip and his chair…for now.