Shot Tower between the Bridges 1910

Curator: This etching is entitled "Shot Tower between the Bridges" and was created around 1910 by the American artist Joseph Pennell. Editor: It has the faintest whisper of industry about it. Like a love song to grit, grime and…promise. All these steamboats and factories just simmering there. It's beautifully moody. Curator: Pennell, a major figure in the etching revival, made his reputation depicting the modern city. He reveled in the aesthetics of industrial subjects like factories, skyscrapers, bridges and in this case, shot towers—a now obsolete structure for manufacturing shot ammunition. Editor: I’m really drawn to how it seems both realistic and dreamlike simultaneously. Look at the haze, it dissolves those stark industrial lines in this wonderfully ethereal light. I almost want to dive into that world for a while. Curator: Pennell very deliberately chose etching for its linear qualities. The process involves drawing with a needle on a metal plate covered with wax, then submerging it in acid. He sought a medium capable of capturing the dynamism of contemporary urban experience. Notice the sharp, intricate lines depicting every smokestack and wave—his work champions modern technology, aligning him with the industrial ethos of the time. Editor: The boats give it such scale, don't they? Little smudges dwarfed by all those architectural giants…there's a powerful contrast there, all those tiny human ambitions set against the monumental backdrop. Makes me ponder our place in things. Curator: And Pennell wasn't afraid to express opinions, stating he sought to ennoble these modern, industrial landscapes as much as classic painters portrayed ancient ruins. He actively positioned these evolving, ever-changing cities as valid artistic subject matter. Editor: It definitely encourages one to seek the art and beauty in even the unlikeliest of places...almost like an embrace of the mundane transformed into something grand. Well, it certainly makes you appreciate a good industrial skyline. Curator: A fresh perspective indeed. Editor: It does give pause for thought, doesn’t it?