From the Tops of the Furnaces 1916

Joseph Pennell made this artwork using pencil and paper. It is a landscape where heavy industry meets humankind. I look at all the marks he made and think about the process of translating three-dimensional forms onto a two-dimensional surface. It's all trial and error, and instinct. I imagine Pennell standing on location, squinting against the smoke, and the light, trying to capture the complexity of the scene with just a few lines. It's a high-wire act, and he pulls it off with aplomb. There's a real sense of movement in this piece – the way the smoke curls and billows, the way the figures seem to scurry about their business. Pennell's mark-making is both precise and loose, capturing both the grit and the grandeur of the industrial landscape. He's in conversation with artists like Whistler, who were also exploring the beauty and ugliness of modern life. It’s a reminder that art is always a dialogue across time, with artists inspiring and challenging one another to see the world in new ways.