St. Paul's Over Temple Stairs 1905

Here's an etching by Joseph Pennell, "St. Paul's Over Temple Stairs". You can tell he made this by dragging a sharp needle across a metal plate, digging lines into the surface. It's so delicate, so restrained. I try to imagine Pennell out there by the Temple Stairs, squinting to see the Cathedral. It's all about line and tone, and how he could capture the monumentality of the architecture with these tiny scratches. What to include and what to omit? That's the game. He probably knew Whistler's etchings well. It's that same kind of poetic rendering of a city, made with a few lines. I bet Pennell labored over this, wiping the plate, re-biting the lines in acid, all that back and forth. It’s a reminder that we’re all in conversation, these artists working across time, giving each other ideas. And it’s never fixed, there are always more ways to look, more ways to see.