London Deserted – Henrique Alvim Corrêa's War of the Worlds, 1906

A suffocating sepia-brown palette drains the life from a once-bustling London street, perfectly evoking post-invasion desolation. Crumbling Victorian terraces line a cobblestone road strewn with debris and fallen ladders, while a vast alien tripod looms behind a domed building, its cyclopean eyes peering through the murk. The crosshatched pen-and-ink technique amplifies the oppressive atmosphere, casting the city in smoky twilight. This masterwork of implied menace shows destruction through absence — no people, only ruin and an encroaching alien presence.