The Fallen Column, Athens 1913

Joseph Pennell captured the solemnity of the Fallen Column in Athens, in this tonal drawing. You can see him, can’t you, with his pencil out in the baking heat, squinting, trying to get those verticals just right. He's trying to evoke not just the grandeur but also the melancholy of this ruin. The pencil feels like a sympathetic tool for such a task, not too flashy. Look at the shadows he's created, the contrast between light and dark, and the hatched marks. He's not trying to trick us into believing this is real; there is a clear appreciation of the materiality of the drawing itself. It reminds me that, as painters, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants, riffing on what's come before, adding our own mark. We keep the conversation going, across time and space.