In the Land of Iron and Steel 1916

Curator: This evocative print is titled "In the Land of Iron and Steel," rendered in graphite by Joseph Pennell around 1916. A visual poem, really, of the industrial age. Editor: My first breath when looking at it—smog, soot. It’s sooty, but also strangely beautiful. Those delicate lines hinting at such a brutal landscape… I find it compelling. Curator: Pennell's work frequently captures this tension. The billowing smoke, the skeletal factory structures. In Jungian terms, it evokes the Shadow – the disavowed, often destructive side of progress. Notice how the railway lines seem to dominate. Editor: Yes, they slice through the landscape, directing your gaze relentlessly into that industrial heart. The repetition of the chimneys – almost totemic. It’s almost… worshipful. I wonder about that intentionality. Curator: Interesting you mention worshipful… Many critics saw these industrial scenes, especially during wartime, as celebratory of American might. Pennell wasn’t immune to such interpretations, but I believe his true aim was more ambiguous—acknowledging power, maybe, but never truly glorifying it. Look at the scale—human figures are practically absent. Dwarfed. Editor: The near absence of figures is really what amplifies the crushing effect of industry—like ants before the giants. You know, even the signature seems hesitant. Curator: You’ve hit upon something there, I think. Pennell’s career straddled aesthetic movements; this work carries both the realistic detail yet also the emerging modernist sensibilities. It reflects that moment where humankind stood awestruck, but perhaps also terrified, at what they had wrought. Editor: Yes, definitely terror mixed into the awe—the land itself seems subjugated beneath that network of iron. We can almost feel the ground vibrate. What symbols of hope would he show next? Curator: Good question! Though here, he's revealed, even in industry’s monstrous form, a certain terrible sublimity. Perhaps even in the smoke and the smog there lies a kind of bleak beauty... Editor: Absolutely, I walk away reflecting how the symbols themselves were in transition. Steel: brutal force or burgeoning opportunity? This print feels timeless in that dilemma.