The Columns of Castor and Pollux, Girgenti 1913

Joseph Pennell made this drawing of the Columns of Castor and Pollux, Girgenti, with pencil on paper. Pennell’s drawing captures the monumental ruin with the softest of marks. Just imagine him there, perched with his sketchbook, squinting in the Sicilian sun. He probably leaned right in, his nose almost touching the paper, to get those lines just so. The hatching feels both precise and tentative at once, like he's feeling his way around the space, trying to understand the weight and presence of these ancient stones, these columns. There’s a real tenderness in his touch, a sensitivity to the play of light and shadow. I bet he would have loved to see the way artists like Piranesi or Turner would have drawn these same ruins. Maybe he did, and this drawing is Pennell’s conversation with them.