The Home of the Baa Laam 1913

Joseph Pennell made this print, The Home of the Baa Laam, using black ink on paper. The whole thing has this dreamy, architectural quality, like the landscape is a stage set. I can imagine Pennell outside, squinting and sketching under bright sunlight, trying to figure out how to capture the monumental scale of it all. There's a building nestled up there, and these cliffs that have these incredible, textured surfaces. The ink is wiped in such a way as to emphasize the roughness and irregularity of the stone. You can see the artist trying to find a balance between the natural and built environments, and how the forms play off one another. It reminds me of Piranesi, who also thought about architecture as these fantasy spaces. Artists, we are always looking, learning, and borrowing from each other, building on each other’s visions!