Battleship Coming Home 1917

Joseph Pennell made this etching of a battleship coming home with ink on paper. The cool thing about Pennell’s mark-making here is how he uses a kind of frenetic energy. There’s a real sense of movement and maybe even anxiety with all those short, scratchy lines. It feels like he's trying to capture not just the look, but the feel of this massive ship in motion. Look at the lower part of the ship, how the lines become almost like chaotic scribbles, mimicking the churning water and the overall drama of the scene. I like how the buildings and bridge are more solid shapes that contrast with the fluid movement of the water. You can see Whistler in this, especially in the atmospheric perspective and tonal range. Both saw beauty in the everyday and the industrial, and both were masters of etching. It’s a piece that suggests more than it tells. It’s more about the process, the feeling, and less about a perfect rendering of reality.