Flatiron Building 1904

Joseph Pennell made this etching of the Flatiron Building, maybe around the time it was built. It’s all in shades of gray, made of these tiny, scratchy lines. You can almost feel Pennell's hand moving across the plate, building up the image bit by bit. I can imagine him standing there, probably shivering a little, trying to capture this crazy new shape jutting up into the sky. What was he thinking as he drew each line? Was he amazed? Or maybe a little intimidated by this weird, skinny skyscraper? There's this real sense of energy in the way he's rendered the street scene, like the city is buzzing all around. It reminds me of Whistler's etchings of London – that same kind of urban romanticism. Artists, you know, we’re always in conversation with each other, riffing on what came before, trying to capture the feeling of a place. And, in the end, all we can do is add our own mark to the conversation.