Joseph Pennell

In total, Joseph Pennell created more than 28 etchings of New York during the Autumn of 1904. All were published in editions of between 25 and 90 impressions. One author writes,

“In these prints there is a sparkling freshness and an inspired intensity. Awed by the skyscrapers, the artist drew most of them from street level looking up, with the reduced scale of hastily suggested people giving even greater monumentality and substance to the tall buildings. A master of selection and suggestion, Pennell depicts acutely observed details with amazing formal flexibility, massing them into a unified composition that insists on an internal artistic integrity and at the same time is convincingly veracious in its topographical documentation.” (1)

In the early 1920’s Joseph Pennell continued making fine drawings and etchings of New York City. His regard of the modern American city and specifically New York, however, had changed dramatically. In 1921, the same year of the publication of the revised, limited edition of "Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen" Pennell created an etching entitled, "Not Naples, but New York" (Wuerth #776). It depicts a tenement in Manhattan’s lower east side. The area is densely populated with squalid living conditions. Signs and placards are plastered everywhere in English, Italian and Chinese. As in this original drawing similar, disjointed words appear -- "Drink", "America", "Ideals", "Chew" and "Sale". "A Modern American City", however, takes these offensive signs out of the tenement and enlarges them to giant proportions for the towering downtown edifices one sees. "Smoke", "Tires", "Eat", "Chew" and "Snooze" dominate the skyline. In his Postscript to the Preface of "Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen", Joseph Pennell wrote;

"I have lived long enough to see America lose in the art of illustration, the proud position she once held, and become the prey of the business man and ad man and editor man, who are fattening on what is called art in our country. ... But art and literature are subordinate to advertisement, and its success is the aim and ideal of those who lead, while the merits of the 'goods' advertised are proclaimed in an uplifting, soul-yearning voice. What wonder, then, that there is little interest in finer things, in better work?" (2).

In 1925, near the end of his life, Joseph Pennell wrote his autobiography, "The Adventures of an Illustrator". He had now long resided in a Brooklyn apartment with large front windows that looked out to the skyline of Manhattan. He concluded the book with these words;

"I am here and shall stay here to the end, which may come any day, any hour. I would not stay a minute if I could not sit with E. (his wife, Elizabeth) and look out of our windows on the most beautiful thing left in the world, and that is going too, ruined by fools, business men to puff themselves and their shops, to make money, their god, their aim, their idol, which is no good to them when they have got it and so they give it away, most of them, to advertise themselves. We are of it, not in it, the world. But we see it, see it passing, for in a little while it will be no more and we shall be no more, the world we loved and laid up treasures in -- it is gone and they are gone. The view from our windows is the last of our world, for all else has gone -- we have seen it go --and we are going and it is going. But it is good to have lived, to have adventured, to have known, and to remember." (3).

Joseph Pennell's signature opposite the title page

Condition of this Original Joseph Pennell Drawing and the Accompanying Book

Joseph Pennell probably made this intriguing drawing in one of his notebooks as it is on two sheets of uniform sized paper. He then glued the two sheets together, probably shortly before sending it off to London to be tipped into the book, as described in the opening paragraph. Slight glue staining exists along this vertical line. Signed and annotated on the verso. Apart from the glue staining this original drawing is in excellent condition throughout and obviously represents a most important work of art by one of America’s greatest artists. The book, Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen, is signed by Pennell opposite the title page and numbered ‘218’ of 250. Slight chipping is apparent on the top of the spine, else in very good condition throughout. A previous owner has made a handsome, linen case for the book and attached the original paper label to it.

Joseph Pennell's signature on the Back of the Drawing

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