Lodgings for Gents 1923

Joseph Pennell made this etching called "Lodgings for Gents" sometime in his life, using a metal plate and acid. And what I see right away is the wild energy in the mark-making, like he was wrestling with the city itself. Look at how the lines build up the skyscraper, almost like a skeleton, unfinished, raw. You can feel the grit and the dust, the sheer labor of building something so massive. It’s not just a picture; it’s a record of process, a kind of performance captured on paper. The scratches in the sky almost feel like rain. Pennell had a love-hate relationship with New York, you know? He admired the ambition but was also critical of the cost. I love the tension in his work, a city in perpetual motion, always becoming. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi, the way he captures the grandeur and the melancholy of these monumental spaces. And it leaves me wondering, what does it mean to build, to create, to leave your mark on the world?