Macdougal Alley Scotch 1933

George Kenneth Hartwell made this print, Macdougal Alley Scotch, with a tight monochrome palette, and a real emphasis on the mark making. You can tell he’s really thinking about how he’s making the image as he goes. The first thing that strikes me is the texture. Look at the way he layers the lines to give depth to the buildings, each tiny stroke adding to a sense of solidity. The way the light catches the brick, it’s all in the details. And then there’s this fantastic dog in the foreground, almost cartoonish in its shaggy exuberance, that contrasts with the stern architecture and the shadows that seem to gather in every corner. It reminds me a little of Piranesi’s etchings, that same obsession with architectural detail. But where Piranesi's prints are often about grandeur, this feels more intimate, more lived-in. It’s like Hartwell wanted to show us not just the alley, but the life teeming within it.