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.)