Joseph Pennell: "The French Cathedrals"

"The Cathedral of Le Puy from the North"
by Joseph Pennell

"Joseph Pennell, who had just finished a series on the English cathedrals for 'The Century Magazine,' was asked to begin a second of the great church of France. The work, before it came to an end, carried us north and south, east and west, from one cathedral town to another. It kept us in each sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months. It spread over eighteen years, so that we got to know them all with an intimacy that visiting them for pleasure alone could never have given us.

Our choice of cathedrals and the order of our visiting them depended upon a scheme carefully prepared, though not by ourselves.  Mrs. Van Rensselaer, who had written a book on the English cathedrals, planned this second one on the French, with reference entirely to her own interest in the subject and the value of the examples she selected in the history of architecture. After the first few chapters, however, she abandoned the work, and as I had been to the cathedrals with Joseph, who was making the drawings in the order she suggested, I undertook it in her place. As it was planned according to architectural history, it was the cause of our seeing a great deal more of France and learning a great deal more about its cathedrals than we might had we followed the more direct lines of travel."

It is interesting to note that the change of writers for this book was actually due to a disagreement between author and illustrator. "Early on in the project Mrs. Van Rensselaer had written to W. Lewis Fraser of the 'Century' art department, reviewing Pennell's drawings. While on the whole she was pleased, she found problems with the cathedrals in Angoulême and Périgueux and the St. Sernin church in Toulouse.

Pennell had not supplied exterior views of any of the three that she found acceptable. Of St. Sernin she wrote 'In some way or the other I must have at least one picture of the exterior of the church; if not from Mr. Pennell, then drawn by someone else from a photo.' In other cases Pennell had supplied views she hadn’t asked for; several of these she had turned down as 'entirely useless for my purpose.'

In Pennell’s letters back, he referred to his practice of using shading and other effects to ameliorate the problems posed by unsympathetic restoration and unfinished repairs, provocatively referring to this process as 'cooking.' Van Rensselaer responded by observing that he had been 'engaged to illustrate what he saw, not to make fancy sketches.'  Pennell defended 'my cooking or faking … [of] these drawings [by asserting] when I come to one of these old churches … and find, instead of beautiful stained glass which ought to be there, blank white windows, or windows at times which are even yet unfinished … I have got to intensify, for example, my lights and shadows and try to give some sort of pictorial effect which really is not there.' Pennell concluded his reply with the statement that 'I never should think of criticizing Mrs. Van Rensselaer’s scheme or methods, but I cannot help repeating that she ought to bear in mind that I cannot draw the ideas of the old men when their work is not visible.'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "French Cathedrals, Monasteries and Abbeys, and Sacred Sites of France" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell and "Correspondence Sheds Light on Illustrations for Articles by Landscape Design Critic Mariana Van Resselaer."