The Street of Cervantés and Lope de Vega, Madrid c. 1903

Joseph Pennell captured The Street of Cervantés and Lope de Vega in Madrid with lithographic crayon on paper, and you can see it at the Art Institute of Chicago. Pennell’s dark strokes and hazy shading build a scene full of both light and shadow. You get the feeling that the artist took his crayon to the surface of the paper and just went for it, right? The whole image leans and tilts, like how a place imprints itself in your memory. I imagine Pennell, standing there, feeling the street’s subtle slope, the weight of the buildings towering, and trying to capture the essence of the moment in just a few strokes. It reminds me how artists throughout time have sought to distill and preserve these fleeting glimpses of reality. This artwork is a reminder of the endless conversation between artists across the ages, each inspiring the next. It’s like we’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one mark at a time.