The Lake of Fire, Charleroi 1911

Joseph Pennell made this etching, "The Lake of Fire, Charleroi", using a monochrome palette. It’s all about mood, right? Pennell is just letting the scene emerge, bit by bit, from the darkness. The piece is built with these subtle textural shifts. Look at the heavy dark sky, and then compare it to the delicate, almost vibrating reflections in the water. You can see how the mark making is different for each element. He creates an industrial hellscape but with this sense of artistry. The small figures in the foreground are rendered so minimally but they create a point of perspective, as if we are witnesses to the scene. It reminds me of some of Goya’s darker etchings, where the process of image making becomes almost like an act of bearing witness. It really makes you think about what it means to look, and what it means to create something so compelling out of such dark material.