The Wine-Dark Sea, Sunium 1913

Joseph Pennell made this image, *The Wine-Dark Sea, Sunium*, using lithographic crayon, and you can see how that waxy, almost greasy medium works with the paper in a very particular way. It’s all about tonal variation and the pressure of the hand. Look at how the dense hatching in the sky creates this almost oppressive atmosphere, a real contrast to the stark, sun-bleached ruins beneath. Those marks feel urgent and immediate, like Pennell was trying to capture a fleeting moment. I love how the architecture is built up from simple lines and blocks of tone, but then he’ll add these tiny, almost scribbled details, like on the broken stones in the foreground. That tension between the structural and the chaotic is what makes this image so compelling, you know? It reminds me a little bit of Piranesi, with his dramatic perspectives and crumbling monuments, both artists capturing this sense of history and decay.