Wren's City 1909

Joseph Pennell made this moody aquatint, *Wren's City*, using a copper plate to hold the ink. Imagine him inking up the plate and wiping it back, leaving ink in all those tiny etched crevices. I'm thinking about the kind of looking it takes to make a print like this. The way the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral looms, soft and smudgy, feels like a memory—a recollection of London's skyline. The buildings are solid, but the city beyond is this atmospheric wash of light. Pennell clearly wants us to feel the weight of history, the scale of the city. I see echoes of Whistler in his printmaking—that same pursuit of atmosphere and tone. He probably knew Whistler’s work well. Artists are always building on each other, one mark at a time, in conversation across generations. It's how we keep seeing the world anew.