The New International Encyclopædia/Pennell, Joseph

PENNELL, pĕn′el, Joseph (1860—). An American etcher, illustrator, and author, born in Philadelphia. He was a pupil of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Arts. He showed the picturesque possibilities of old Philadelphia in a series of clever etchings, and also executed many Italian and several English subjects, such as the “Thames Embankment,” and the “Nelson Monument.” He is one of the best of American etchers. His work is clean, strong, and intelligent, and is characterized by sharp contrasts of light and shade. He received honorable mentions and medals at Paris, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and a first class gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Some of the books which he illustrated, and the text for which usually was prepared by his wife, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, include A Canterbury Pilgrimage (1885); An Italian Pilgrimage (1886); Our Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1888); Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen (1889); Our Journey to the Hebrides (1889); To Gypsy Land (1893); Modern Illustration (1895); The Illustration of Books (1896); and The Alhambra (1896).