The West Street Building from the Singer Building 1908

Joseph Pennell made this etching, "The West Street Building from the Singer Building," with ink on paper. I can imagine Pennell, perched high up in the Singer Building, looking down on the city with a keen eye, trying to capture the energy of this new metropolis. The lines are so delicate, like spiderwebs catching the light, and he layers them to build up the image, stroke by stroke. I like how he focuses on the architectural details of the buildings but lets the background fade into a kind of atmospheric haze. He makes the building seem both solid and ethereal, as if it's rising from the very air itself! You see the influence of Whistler in his work, and you sense him thinking about Piranesi, trying to capture the monumentality and dynamism of modern life. Artists are always having a dialogue with those who came before, riffing off their ideas and pushing them in new directions. Ultimately, art-making is an act of conversation across time.