St. Paul's Wharf

Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) was an important American etcher, lithographer and writer who was also one of the major book illustrators of his time. After attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennell found work etching historic landmarks and illustrating travel articles and books for American publishers. In 1884 he went to Europe and settled in London. He produced numerous books, both as an author and as an illustrator, many of them in collaboration with his wife, author Elizabeth Robins Pennell. In London his friends included many of the most notable creative figures of the day, including the writers George Bernard Shaw and Robert Louis Stevenson and the Anglo-American painters John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.

During his lifetime Pennell produced more than 900 etchings and mezzotints and more than 600 lithographs on architectural and landscape subjects ranging from the Panama Canal and Yosemite National Park to the factories of England and the temples of Greece. Pennell distinguished himself not only as one of America's most talented etchers but also as a promotional genius who helped to spur the revival of printmaking and print collecting during the first two decades of the 20th century. His publications include several books on drawing and printmaking, as well as a famous biography of Whistler that he wrote with his wife in 1908. Pennell moved back to the United States during World War I.

This etching is an early work, dating from the year of his arrival in London, which would remain for over 30 years his main base. It is an attractively vignetted cityscape, inspired by Whistler both in style and format, depicting barges grounded in the foreground wharf, and the slightly ghostly silhouette of the domed St Paul's Cathedral in the background. We see detailed depictions of the businesses and signs; one is used as a witty conceit:  on a warehouse we read: 'Joseph Pennell made this picture July tenth eighteen hundred and eighty four. This is the first drawing which I have made in London Town'.

See:

<em>Encyclopedia Britannica</em>, 'Joseph Pennell', https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Pennell

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    May 2018