Chelsea Church Tower 1905

Joseph Pennell made this print of Chelsea Church Tower with etching on paper, but I wonder if he felt like he was drawing? The marks feel so immediate and textural. Look at the density of lines that form the tower of the church. There’s a real sense of place in the way he uses line to capture not just the form, but also the feeling of the place. It's like the lines are dancing, each one contributing to the overall rhythm of the scene. You can almost feel the cool dampness of the stone. And notice how the figures in the foreground are barely there, just a few lines, which is such a confident move. It’s as though he's saying, ‘I don’t need to spell everything out for you; trust your own imagination’. Artists like James McNeill Whistler played with this kind of atmospheric approach, and I wonder if Pennell knew his work? Either way, this print feels like a conversation with art history, a quiet exploration of what it means to capture a moment in time.