The Washing Place of Madrid c. 1903

Joseph Pennell made “The Washing Place of Madrid” with crayon, and it’s all about touch, those marks that come so natural when you pick up the crayon in your hand, you can almost feel his hand moving across the paper, right? The way he layers the marks, it’s like a visual diary of his looking. Notice how he uses the white of the paper to make the laundry pop, dazzling against the darker, softer crayon. The buildings on the hill, they almost disappear into the sky, smudgy and soft, but then you look at the laundry, that’s where all the action is, isn’t it? Those bright whites cut through the rest of the scene. Pennell reminds me a little of Whistler, another printmaker with a knack for capturing a sense of place with just a few strokes. This isn’t about perfection; it’s about feeling, about the kind of seeing that lets you get lost in the marks, in the process.