Gateway, Segovia c. 1903

This is Joseph Pennell’s etching, Gateway, Segovia, made sometime around the turn of the century. It’s all about the light, which is funny, because it’s really a study in darks. See how he creates all these different textures, the rough stone of the gateway on the left, the smoother wall to the right, with just a million tiny marks? I love that the little figures in the gateway are barely there, they're like ghosts. What’s interesting is how, despite the detail, it feels less like a precise record and more like a memory. Look at the vertical strokes on the columns which frame the image, how this contrasts with the horizontal lines of the wall and the marks which create the impression of sunlight on the road. For me it’s impossible to look at Pennell’s work without thinking of Whistler, another American artist who made etchings of European cities, and whose approach to printmaking was as a form of personal expression, an exercise in mood.