Westminster Abbey c. 1923

William Walcot made this etching, Westminster Abbey, and it feels like he was coaxing a ghost into being. You can see he's made the plate with the lightest touch. I imagine Walcot standing before this gothic masterpiece, squinting in the London light, trying to capture not just its grandeur but the way the light catches on all that stonework. The whole scene shimmers, doesn’t it? Like it could dissolve any minute. He’s trying to pin down something fleeting, some ethereal quality of light and shadow. It’s interesting to see an artist so committed to architectural accuracy, yet unafraid to let the details blur. Maybe he was thinking about Piranesi or Canaletto while he worked, trying to evoke a sense of place that's both real and imagined. It reminds us that artists don't just reproduce what they see but interpret and reimagine the world for us. Painting is like that too – you start with something, and it becomes something else entirely through the act of making.