Towers of the Bishop's Palace, Beauvais 1907

Joseph Pennell made this etching, "Towers of the Bishop's Palace, Beauvais," sometime in his lifetime, using an intricate and delicate arrangement of lines. Can you imagine Pennell, hunched over his plate, carefully drawing each line to build this majestic cathedral? The texture of the stone, the height of the towers – it's all rendered with such precision, yet there's a certain softness to it, a haziness, like a memory. The image reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s architectural fantasies, but with a more intimate, human touch. I wonder what Pennell was thinking as he created this image. Was he lost in the grandeur of the architecture, or perhaps contemplating the passage of time? Either way, this print feels like a quiet meditation on form, light, and the enduring power of human creation.