Antique Vintage Etching New York City, Joseph Pennell American Artist, Woolworth Building 1915, SLC with the "imp" mark which means he printed this image himself. This etching is n ot laid down and is hinged. The paper is a thin Jason paper. A very strong dark impression. 11 3/4 x 7 1/4" image size, 18 3/4 x 13 3/4" framed.

Born in Philadelphia, America in 1857, and raised by Quaker parents, Larkin Pennell and Rebecca A. Barton, when he was ten the family moved to Germantown where he attended The Friends Select School 'for six awful years, the worst of my life', a loner with few friends.[7] Pennell spent much of the time drawing, a skill not praised in his school, but he did receive drawing lessons from James R. Lambdin.[2]

On leaving 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 School of Industrial Arts by night. Expelled in 1879 - Pennell claimed for encouraging a mutiny among the students - his Professor, Charles M. Burns, who had recognised 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.[2]

Pennell was determined to work as an artist and opened his own studio in 1880 (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.[1]

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;[5] As is Pennell's 1925 The Adventures of an Illustrator

18.75 x 13.75 in

10 lb