Hail America 1908

Joseph Pennell etched ‘Hail America’ to create this moody scene of the Statue of Liberty overlooking the New York skyline. Pennell has this fantastic, misty way of working the aquatint to create something between a drawing and an atmosphere. I can imagine him trying to capture how a harbor feels, and what Liberty probably meant to people in the early 20th century. There is an energy that feels so melancholic and uncertain, but somehow hopeful. See how he uses these very inky darks and then almost leaves the sky blank to shimmer through. It is all about the surface, the tone, and the feeling, right? Painters are always chatting to each other across time, picking up on each other’s visual ideas, and it’s clear that Pennell had soaked up Whistler’s prints and paintings – the muted tones, the cityscapes, the poetic impressions. Painting can be a way of making feelings visible, capturing something that’s not so easy to put into words.