PENNELL, JOSEPH

born July 4, 1857, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died April 23, 1926, Brooklyn, N.Y. American etcher, lithographer, and writer who was one of the major book illustrators of his time. After attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennell went to Europe in 1884 and made his home in London. He produced numerous books, many of them in collaboration with his wife, author Elizabeth Robins Pennell (18551936), but his chief distinction is as an original etcher and lithographer and as an illustrator. 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. His publications include several books on drawing and printmaking, and his famous biography of his friend the painter James McNeill Whistler, written with Mrs. Pennell (1908). Pennell moved back to the United States during World War I.