The Garden of the Island, Aranjuez c. 1903

Joseph Pennell made this lithograph, The Garden of the Island, Aranjuez, and wow, it's a moody scene. It’s all about the blacks and grays, like a foggy memory. You can sense that Pennell wasn't trying to capture every detail, but more the feeling of being in this garden. It makes you think about how much art is just about the choices of what to leave out. Looking closely, you can almost feel the charcoal scraping across the paper. The trees overhead are massive dark shapes, made with these quick, scribbly marks. Then there are little touches of light on the statues and the strolling figures, but they are really swallowed up by the shadows. Pennell is thinking about Whistler I reckon, someone who also used a limited palette to great effect. Ultimately, the beauty is in the process, in the way Pennell lets the marks build up, creating a space that feels both real and dreamlike.