Joseph Pennell: Pen Drawings

Edwin Austin Abbey

"Joseph Pennell's chief literary preoccupation during 1888 was his book, 'Pen Drawing.' In his introduction to the book, he laid out three primary reasons for its creation: 

'I believe that, just as none but the physician is allowed to speak with authority on medicine, none but the scientist on science, so only the man who has made and carefully studied pen drawings should have the right to speak authoritatively of them. Only the writing on art by one who has technical knowledge of it is of practical value.'

'Today pen drawing is not only an art in itself, but one which, as well as painting in oils, requires its own technical perfection.'

'For examples, I have selected the best work, so far as I have been able to find it, of all schools, and not merely of one narrow French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, or American method, the merits or shortcomings of which one would be unable to point out without using this comparative plan.'  But I am not without hope that the pen drawings published here will show many, who are pleased to call themselves pen draughtsmen, that they are without the faintest idea of the aims, objects and limitations of the art.'

Every day taught him more of his subject, and he tore up old chapters and wrote new ones in their place. Richmond Seeley was bent upon issuing the book but also afraid of it, uncertain how far and into what expense Pennell's enthusiasm would carry him. Finally he said it would be easy to find another publisher for such a book. 'Then find him,' was Pennell's ultimatum. And Seeley found the Macmillans and this was the beginning of a long and close relationship with the firm, and friendship with Mr. Frederick Macmillan. He was no less an enthusiast than Pennell and the book was under his personal supervision. He decided that to ensure its success - and a profit - it must be brought out on an elaborate scale at a large price.

Sure now of his publishers' active sympathy, Pennell's interest redoubled. If he wanted to reproduce drawings that had to be paid for and the publishers hesitated, he paid for them himself. He gathered pen drawings of the best quality for his book. He appealed to the 'Century' and the editors presented him with examples of Blum, Brennan, Farney, Lungren, and Birch. He was able to get original drawings of the 'Men of the Sixties.' He called on 'Punch,' and Menzels and Chodowieckis were brought out. He went to Paris and obtained pen drawings from Vierge, Rico and Casanova. He could not forget the debt he owed to the Spaniards, upon whose style his own was originally based, and found them not merely willing but eager to work with and for him. 

To the thinking public the book was a revelation. Few before thought of pen drawing as an art apart; few could deny its claim when confronted with so fine a series of examples. Artists like Edwin Austen Abbey and Parsons liked it well enough to buy it, which was to Pennell a great satisfaction."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell and from "Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen" by Joseph Pennell.) 

 

Joseph Pennell: Art Critic

"Bow Bells, Cheapside"
by Joseph Pennell

"At that time younger art critics, with the daring to think for themselves, began to be heard from. R.A.M. Stevenson, trained as an artist, was art critic for the 'Saturday Review' but abandoned it for the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Charles Whibley, always volcanic, was writing for the 'Scots Observer.' Joseph Pennel on the 'Star was a third - a powerful third. He went into the work as he went into everything, heart and soul, determined to do his best. 

In art criticism, as in all other matters, that 'eighty obligation' which was Pennell's Quaker inheritance, forced him to speak the truth without fear or hesitation. He spoke the truth on what to him was the most serious thing in life and, in speaking it, he was trespassing on Academic preserves, regardless of the warning to keep off at the risk of Academic displeasure. To defy the Academy was to be cast into outer darkness, a rank outsider. Because of his art criticism he gradually became unpopular with the public and artists alike. 

Pennell did not mind. There were things he was determined to say because he felt they ought to be said. At times the editors grew nervous and used the editorial blue pencil. Once Marie Bashkirtseff's relations, wrathful I do not recall over what, made the Law Courts seem an imminent probability, but their wrath went no farther than threats. Once artist Walter Crane lost his temper, thinking qualified praise of the first Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts an insult, and in a newspaper letter waved a big stick at Pennell. But his temper, after blazing for a day, burned itself out, and the two men, really in sympathy, were on the best of terms until Crane's death. Some friends, it is true, dropped away, but friends of that kind were not worth keeping. 

The objection of a few was that his work as critic must interfere with his work as artist. On the contrary, as he never could be idle, never sit with hands folded. To the larger shows he would have gone in any case through interest. How little of a brake criticism was can be judged by the number and distinction of his illustrations during those years. He completed the Westminster Abbey drawings, large important architectural studies. Also a series on London, 'From Charing Cross to St. Paul's,' for Seeley. Henry James' wrote an article requiring more illustrations of London and inspired Pennell to get out his copper plates. Work for books were also a pleasant diversion: 'A Summer Voyage on the River Saône,' 'Our Sentimental Journey,' 'Christopher Plantin and the Plantin Museum,' and 'Old Chelsea,' brought out by the 'Century.' But his chief literary preoccupation was his 'Pen Drawing.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)

Joseph Pennell: The Cathedrals

"St. Paul's from Cheapside"
by Joseph Pennell

In 1892 author Mrs. Schuler Van Rensselaer wrote: "Some years ago I was asked to write descriptions of twelve of the English cathedrals for 'The Century Magazine,' and was promised the invaluable help of Mr. Pennell's drawings. A summer in England was the immediate result, and the final result is this book." Twelve of Pennell's illustrations in her series of magazine articles had grown to one hundred and fifty-four for her book, and he spent far longer than 'a summer in England' to produce his beautiful pictures.

"The difficulty of illustrating these magnificent buildings well was teaching Pennell a great deal, and his drawings were growing more elaborate, more learned, more impressive. As his interest increased, he rebelled against the tedium of struggling with architectural perspective. His concern was the beauty of the architecture, not its technical problems, And yet, he believed that to express this beauty the technical problems must be mastered according to technical rules. 

But from the beginning, coming to Gothic fresh from the comparative simplicity of Colonial architecture, he was afraid to trust his extraordinary powers of observation. He turned to photographs and abandoned them promptly. They were of so little use that he gave them up altogether, except as notes or reminders, and then he did not trust them too confidently. He knew that Abbey relied upon architectural draughtsmen, he had heard that this was Doré's method also, and Alma Tadema's for his classical perspectives. 

A young architect, Charles Edward Mallows, proved to be his man. He had met him in his travels, had watched him at work, realized his ability, asked if he had time to spare. Mallows did and was glad to give it. Pennell would select his point of view, Mallows would prepare the perspective, and the drawing could be made without the preliminary mechanical labour that has little to do with the interpretation of beauty. Later Pennell wrote that if Mallows helped him with architecture, then 'I taught him how to draw it,' and in Mallows' large drawings of architecture Pennell's influence is unmistakable. Mallows was his first student and, like all his intelligent students, was devoted."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)  

 

Joseph Pennell: A Canterbury Pilgrimage

Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell had returned to London from Italy to propose an idea for a book to be entitled, "A Canterbury Pilgrimage." As the first paragraph of their story explained: "It was towards the end of August, when a hot sun was softening the asphalt in the dusty streets of London, and ripening the hops in the pleasant land of Kent, that we went on pilgrimage to Canterbury. Ours was no ordinary journey by rail, which is the way latter-day pilgrims mostly travel. No. What we wanted was in all reverence to follow, as far as it was possible, the road taken by the famous company of bygone days, setting out from the hostelrie where these lordings lay one night and held counsel, making stations by the way at the few places they mention by name, and ending it, as they did, at the shrine of the 'holy, blissful martyr,' in the Canterbury Cathedral. How better could this be done than by riding over the ground made sacred by them on our tricycle?"

The 'Century' hesitated to accept it because so much Pennell material was already on hand or ordered. The 'English Illustrated' also refused, but Richard Seely, of Seeley & Company Publishers, was of another mind. He liked the drawings, said he would read the manuscript, and agreed to let us have his decision promptly. Within a fortnight we had it. 

He would bring out the 'Pilgrimage' as a book in a paper cover for a shilling, would have it on all the railway book stalls, would deluge England with it. Better still, he would bring it out immediately. Our excitement was great. Pennell spent hours in the British Museum studying old manuscripts, hunting up appropriate motives for cover design and chapter headings. He would not leave town until the proofs were passed.  By the thirty-first proofs of 'A Canterbury Pilgrimage' were passed for press. 

"A Canterbury Pilgrimage' was published while we were in Winchester, and in Salisbury we got our first notice the first morning when we opened the 'Daily News' and saw the headline, 'The Most Wonderful Shilling's Worth Modern Literature has to Offer.' If 'A Canterbury Pilgrimage' was an immediate success, as it was, this headline undoubtedly  helped to make it one. It appealed to two publics: to the cycling public at a period when cycling was the popular sport; to the scholarly public as a tribute to Chaucer and his Pilgrims. Moreover, paper covers were not as common in England as in France, and these, together with the unusual proportions and design of the book, made it conspicuous on railway bookstalls and in bookshop windows. The price, one shilling, attracted a larger public. Letters poured in upon us, from friends and strangers alike. We made a hit, no mistake, and it was great fun."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters fo Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.) 

 

Joseph Pennell: Cycling through Italy

Pennell's Drawing of Their Humber Tandem Tricycle

"The rainy season in England had set in - if there is any other sort of season in that rain-swept land - and so we started from London on the journey which was the immediate reason for our marriage. Luck was with us. The journey from the start was as perfect as Pennell had promised. His delight in getting back to Italy and sharing its loveliness with me was something to remember. We were awake early the second morning, from the train watched daybreak in the Apennines, looked out upon Pistoia as we circled round it, saw its picturesqueness come out of the mist, in Florence we dropped off our luggage, and, without pause, walked out to the places Pennell had longed to show me. 

Before leaving London we had purchased a Humber Tandem Tricycle and had brought it with us. Nothing marred the pleasure of the ride, the joy of seeing 'Italy from a Tricycle.' The roads were good and the names of the towns through which we wheeled and where we stayed were guarantees of beauty - Empoli, Siena, Monte Oliveto, Civita Castellana. The weather was beyond reproach, day after day of cool October sunshine. It was the most successful of the many beautiful journeys we were to take together. 

Idling was unknown - text and drawings for the story of our ride had to be finished, articles on the Christmas festivities in the Aracoeli and the Piazza Navona for 'St. Nicholas,' and our impressions of 'The Stones of Rome' for the 'Portfolio' had to be written and newspaper letters on whatever subjects presented themselves. No idling indeed - all that winter we worked hard by day. But when late afternoon came we took long prowls through the streets, into churches and galleries, out to the Compagna if the light lasted. When an article was finished, text and drawings posted to New York or London, or when the post brought us the November 'Century' with the first of Howells' 'Tuscan Cities' in it or of my biography on 'Mary Wollstonecraft,' we would eat the best lunch we could order and see the many sights in Rome we wanted to see. 

'Harper's" had approved an article on 'Venetian Fishing Boats.' The commission had us stay two long months. In the evenings, the artists' gathered around the dinner table at the shabby, noisy Antica Panada, where coffee was a few centessimi cheaper than on the Piazza. The centre of these gatherings was Frank Duveneck, in danger of being ruined as an artist by the charm of Venice, which had him in thrall. He had grown quite content to live in his attic at the Casa Kirsch, doing as little work as possible during the day, spending the evening with his 'boys' or their successors, and adding little save his smile to the talk. 

Torcello was a wilderness of flowers when reluctantly, we left Venice in May. We had been married all but a year, we had carried out many of our schemes, and success had been our portion."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)  

Joseph Pennell: Working Schedule

"Chelsea Rectory" by Joseph Pennell

"A late afternoon arrival in Liverpool; a journey by night to Chester; one day in the town to see the Cathedral in anticipation of the Cathedral Series; one evening with a group of Philadelphia artists arrived there before us - Stephen Parrish, his wife, his son Fred who was to become known as Maxfield Parrish, Miss Margaret Lesley; the day after, straight to London lodging at Number 36 Bedford Place, Bloomsbury; and, for the first time, I began to understand how Joseph Pennell worked.

His most urgent commission was the article, which expanded into two, on old Chelsea. The author was away when we got to London, but Pennell could not wait for his author, could not wait until we were settled in lodgings, but was off the next morning, discovering Chelsea for himself, bringing his first drawing back in the late afternoon. It was the same, day after day. No lingering at the breakfast table or over the morning paper. Breakfast eaten, he gather up portfolio, T-square, camp stool, and was gone, seldom to get back until the dinner hour, if then. He scorned an eight-hour day, had no patience with a time limit on any kind of labour, from art to street cleaning. 

When conditions permitted, his drawing was begun and finished on the spot, to preserve its accuracy, its freshness, its spontaneity. But the sun will not stand still for the most untiring artist. The light and effects will change and sometimes drawings, when little remained to be done, were finished at home or carried to the same spot at the same hour the following day. 

It was a good thing for my nerves that I realized only gradually the risk he ran when he worked out of doors in town. A man who draws in the street collects a crowd as surely as the man who digs a hole, and often Pennell's method of getting rid of people who bothered him was as irritating as effective. His pen, dipped into the bottle hanging from a buttonhole of his coat, could with an innocent flourish scatter the gaping crowd. He had at his command the answer that does not turn away wrath. When an Englishman, who had long looked over his shoulder asked what he was doing, received the answer 'Minding my business. Don't you think it about time for you to mind yours?' His tactics were more apt to lead to trouble on the Continent, where tempers are quicker, and in Italy, France and Spain I had reason to tremble. But he would allow nothing to interfere."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)  

Joseph Pennell: Sealing the Deal

"The Tower of London" by Joseph Pennell

"In July 1883 Joseph Pennell left Italy for Edinburgh. The contrast was bewildering, incredible. The Venetian sunlight, not yet washed out of his eyes, could not blind him to the picturesqueness of the sombre northern town with the stern castle on the hill and the thick grey mist. Wash seemed the appropriate medium for a series of commissions in this part of the world before he sailed back home. 

He was in his very best form upon his return, full of what he had seen, what he had done, what he had felt, what was to come of it. His energy was irresistible. Again, he was eager to collaborate with me in his hours of work eager to have me as a companion in his hours of play. 

Thanks to him, I became a fully accredited art critic on not only the 'American' but the 'Press.' When an important exhibition opened in New York, we would run over together. He would guide me through the gallery to such good purpose that, we could also take in the opera or theatre after lunch and, coming back on the train, I would write away for dear life, he at my elbow in case of need, and my article would get to the office in time to appear in the next morning's paper. 

Early in 1884 they asked him as a special favour to run down to Washington, another illustrator having failed them. It happened that I was called to Baltimore for a day and to Washington for another, and we planned to make the journey together as far as Baltimore and together return from Washington. In the Pullman he began at once on a favourite subject - the beauty of Italy, the absolute necessity of my spending the following summer there. He would get me articles to do that would pay my way. If prudish Philadelphia would stand our journeys to New York and Baltimore, why wouldn't they stand a journey to Italy? In his determination to take me there, he suggested a life partnership which would enable us henceforward to share not simply Italy's, but the world's beauty, at no risk of criticism or gossip. And, with his genius for success, he succeeded in settling the matter. The wedding ceremony was performed in the front parlor of Number 1110, Spruce Street, Philadelphia. 

On the last Saturday in June, with a promise of return tickets from the 'Century,' and a letter of credit for eighteen hundred dollars, we sailed on the 'Oregon' for Liverpool." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The lIfe and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)