Firelight: Joseph Pennell, No. 2
Medium
Transfer lithograph in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 16.7 × 12.9 cm (6 5/8 × 5 1/8 in.); Sheet: 28.3 × 22.8 cm (11 3/16 × 9 in.)
Classification
transfer lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
139499
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Whistler made four lithographic portraits of the American etcher and lithographer Joseph Pennell in January 1896— all drawn on transfer paper in the London flat Pennell shared with his wife, Elizabeth. This image and a similar seated subject show the deep shadows cast by firelight; the other portrait was chosen to be the frontispiece of the Pennells’ book Lithography and Lithographers, first published in 1898. Pennell and his wife were Whistler’s friends and remained fervent supporters after hi...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...