Venice at Work 1911

Joseph Pennell made this print called *Venice at Work*. You can see it's all in these delicate etched lines. I imagine him bent over a plate, scratching into the metal, trying to get the feel of this working waterfront. He’s trying to capture this place where the sky feels smudged and blurred, just like the water, and the whole place seems to be humming with activity. The ships are lined up like they are waiting to be called into service. That crane looming on the left—it's like a big, awkward insect, isn't it? It gives the whole scene a feeling of things being built and torn down, remade, like the city is constantly rebuilding itself. And those wisps of smoke from the ships, rising and mixing with the clouds, it’s almost romantic, like a Turner painting, but with more grit. Pennell, like other artists, saw beauty in the everyday, in the working parts of the city.