Entrance to Henry VII's Chapel 1905

Joseph Pennell made this etching, Entrance to Henry VII's Chapel, using a monochrome palette to create depth through tonal variation. For me, art-making is about the conversation between intention and accident, control and release, and I see that dialogue clearly in this print. The velvety blacks and hazy grays evoke a gothic atmosphere, but also highlight the physicality of the medium. Look closely at the foreground and you can see the dense network of cross-hatched lines, almost like a map of the artist's hand movements. Pennell uses these marks to build up a rich texture, pulling the viewer into the space of the chapel. The strokes of varying pressure and direction gives a sense of energy. There’s something about the ambiguity of the space and the figures that calls to mind Piranesi’s architectural prints. Like Piranesi, Pennell embraces the contradictions inherent in representation, creating an image that is both detailed and suggestive, concrete and ethereal.