Literature

Pennell was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In addition to his pen and ink drawings and etchings, Pennell worked in watercolors, oils and pastels and made lithographs. He won numerous medals at international exhibitions, including the Paris Exposition of 1900 and the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. He illustrated and wrote books, as well as manuals on book illustration and wrote a biography of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and edited a magazine called The Whistler Journal. From 1883 to 1917 Pennell travelled and worked in Europe. In August 1889, he was commissioned to write and illustrate an article entitled Play and Work in the Alps for the June 1891 issue of The Century magazine for which these drawings were produced.