Elizabeth Robins Pennell Joseph Pennell Popular Books

Elizabeth Robins Pennell Joseph Pennell Biography & Facts

Joseph Pennell (July 4, 1857 – April 23, 1926) was an American draftsman, etcher, lithographer, and illustrator for books and magazines. A prolific artist, he spent most of his working life in Europe, and developed an interest in landmarks, landscapes, and industrial scenes around the world. A student of James Lambdin and Thomas Eakins, he was later influenced by James McNeill Whistler. He was married to author Elizabeth Robins, and he also was a writer. In 1914, he published The Jew at Home: Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent with Him (1892) followed by photo-documentary works including Lithographs of War (1914), Pictures of the Wonders of Work (1915), and The Adventures of an Illustrator (1925). In later life, he and wife Elizabeth both wrote art criticism and co-authored books. Early life and education Pennell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1857. He was raised by his Quaker parents, Larkin Pennell and Rebecca A. Barton. At age ten, the family moved to the Germantown section of present-day Philadelphia, where he attended The Friends Select School "for six awful years, the worst of my life", a loner with few friends. Pennell spent much of the time drawing, a skill not praised in his school. He received drawing lessons from James R. Lambdin. Career After attending The Friends School, Pennell worked in an office of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company. His application to the new Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was rejected in 1876; instead, he studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art by night until he was expelled in 1879 (Pennell claimed for encouraging a mutiny among the students). His School of Industrial Art professor, Charles M. Burns, who had recognized Pennell's ability, helped gain him entry to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under Thomas Eakins and others. Pennell's talents lay in graphic arts, rather than painting, and his abrupt personality contributed to difficulties during his years at the Academy. In 1880, Pennell was involved in the violent expulsion of African American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, a fellow student, from the Academy. Tanner had suffered bullying at the Academy since his entry earlier that year, which culminated when a group of students including Pennell seized Tanner and his easel and dragged them out onto Broad Street. The students tied Tanner to his easel in a mock-crucifixion, and left him struggling to free himself. Pennell apparently did not regret this action; many years later, when Tanner was already renowned in Europe and beginning to gain repute in the United States, Pennell recounted the attack as "The Advent of the Nigger," writing that there had never been "a great Negro or a great Jew artist." Pennell was determined to work as an artist and opened his own studio in 1880, which he shared with a Henry R. Poore. Like his later mentor, James McNeill Whistler, he also left America for London, England, on a commission to provide illustrations for US Century magazine, and taught at Slade School of Art. He won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle (1900), and 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He taught also at the Art Students League of New York. Joseph Pennell's Pictures of the Wonders of Work is a 1915 publication featuring 52 of Pennell's images, from around the world over three decades, with an introduction by the artist and detailed biographical work notes. It serves as an excellent and insightful summary of his career up to that point, and is freely available as an e-book; As is Pennell's 1925 The Adventures of an Illustrator: In a productive career as an artist, Joseph Pennell made over 1800 prints, many as illustrations for magazines and books of prominent authors. Depicting first landmarks of his native Philadelphia, USA, then travelling the globe and back recording the landscapes of South America, mainland Europe and industrial cities of his adopted English home. His distinction is as a highly talented original etcher and lithographer and illustrator, a writer, influential lecturer and critic. As Mahonri Sharp Young writes:[Y]oung Pennell had a genius for not getting along with people yet was immediately successful in the fiercely competitive field of illustration. Hard working with remarkable ability and specific talent for drawing, he produced a tremendous volume of highly regarded work. He offended many, but knew everybody, including the most talented. As captain of the Germantown Bicycle Club, early work included illustrations for cycling articles. After studying at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennell opened his own studio in 1880, shared with another artist, and was successful from the start, getting commissions from Harper's and Scribner's (later The Century Magazine) and other publications. He also worked in New Orleans as a book illustrator, and made sketches and watercolours of the Bethlehem Steel works, just north of his native Philadelphia. In 1883, he was sent by Century to Italy, to work on illustrations for a series of articles by William Dean Howells. It was here Pennell created his 'first etching made in Europe' of The Ponte Vecchio, Florence, recalling in his 1925 book The Adventures of an Illustrator: I went to Italy to make my etchings and they were what I cared for. All day and every day I worked at them, drawing them straight on the plates, and that is why they and other proofs by etchers who draw from nature on the copper are reversed in printing. I even tried to bite them out of doors as I drew them - Hamerton' Philip Gilbert Hamerton- 'had recommended that - but only once, for I could not see and I swallowed the fumes of acid as I bent over the flat easel which held the bath, and then I upset that.. but the crowd enjoyed it, especially when the fumes ate the skin off my throat and I spat blood all about'That same year Pennell produced a series of evocative illustrations of heavy industry in Northern England, capturing Sheffield 'Steel City' as the world renowned centre of steel production, with all the shadowing heavy pollution that came with it. The Great Stack, Sheffield and the later dated The Big Chimney, Sheffield Pennel later commented; 'I may say that in 1883 I made a series of illustrations of work subjects in Sheffield which were printed in Harper's Magazine. Two things always impressed me in that town—the boiling water in the rivers and the abominable habits of the natives in the streets, who from across the rivers and behind walls and other safe places "'eave arf a brick" at you if you dare to draw.' Relocation to England In 1884, he received a major, and life changing, commission from Century Magazine, a long-term assignment to produce drawings of London and Italy, plus English and French Cathedrals — this necessitated Pennell and his wife, the writer Elizabeth Robins Pennell, relocating from America to a new home.... Discover the Elizabeth Robins Pennell Joseph Pennell popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elizabeth Robins Pennell Joseph Pennell books.