Rebuilding Fifth Avenue 1908

Joseph Pennell made this etching, Rebuilding Fifth Avenue, in 1909. Look at this web of lines! Pennell uses them to suggest the steel skeleton of a building in progress. I love the immediacy of the etching process, it captures the feeling of a moment, like a quick sketch. There's a real contrast here between the solid, almost brutal, structure of the building, and the delicate lines that describe it. Pennell doesn’t hide the process. You can almost feel him dragging the etching tool across the plate, building up these layers of fine lines. Check out the sky especially; it looks like he has used a really fine toothed comb to scrape the plate, creating a hazy effect. This focus on process reminds me of Whistler. But while Whistler was interested in capturing atmospheric conditions, Pennell seems to be interested in something else; capturing the energy and dynamism of a city in constant flux. It’s like he is saying that art, like a city, is always a work in progress.