Petit Port--La Corniche, Marseilles 1928

Here's a drawing made by Paul Gangolf. It's called Petit Port--La Corniche, Marseilles. It looks like it might be an etching on paper, or maybe an early lithograph? I can really feel the artist trying to get a sense of the place, looking around at the buildings stacked up on each other, at the boats in the water, and the people getting into them. I can feel him looking, scratching with his stylus, trying to get it all down. It reminds me of Piranesi, but a little softer, a little more humane. The marks are all there, the cross-hatching, the way he renders the light on the buildings, but they are not as architectural, more emotional. I wonder if Gangolf ever saw any Piranesi, I bet he did. Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time, taking ideas, and pushing them in new directions.