Mond Gas Dudley Port by Joseph Pennell

This is a great industrial etching by Joseph Pennell. Mond Gas Dudley Port is located in Staffordshire. It converted coal into producer gas (Mond Gas). In the early 1900s it was converting over 3 million tons of coal a year. It is signed in the plate, but is not pencil signed. I don't think this represents a posthumous printing, as it is printed on a shield watermark paper, which is what other examples have been printed on. It is a sharp well-composed scene that captures the early twentieth century industrial genre.
Joseph Pennell (1860-1926)

Pennell was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Much of his time was spent in Europe, particularly in London, where he was greatly influenced by Whistler. His subjects are chiefly landscapes and architectural views, and his art is distinguished for its simplicity, technical perfection, and illustrative quality.
Pennell began his career as an illustrator. Following his marriage Pennell settled in London where he became friends with Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw and James Whistler. In the late 1880s, he was art critic of the Star newspaper. Following in the footsteps of Whistler and such French lithographers as Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Odilon Redon, Pennell began experimenting with lithography. Pennell, like Whistler, was on the executive committee of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, and was put in charge of the hanging of prints for their first exhibition in 1898.
Pennell was known for his outspokenness and deep-seated convictions. According to Hartrick, It is a great mistake to believe that Pennell kow-towed to Whistler and was a mere echo of his opinions. He had a sincere admiration for his talent as an artist and was influenced in his own work by his technique in etching, but he held his own end up always.
He is represented by etchings, drawings, and lithographs in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; and Brooklyn Museum, N.Y. Pennell was a member (1909) of the National Academy of Design and of numerous European societies and was a lecturer on illustration at the Slade School of Art, London, and the Royal College of Art, South Kensington. (From AllRefer.com and the Center for Whistler Studies, Glasgow)

Size: 1909
Price: $450
Size: 263x171.5mm
Framed Size: 325x205mm
Condition: excellent
Medium: Etching
Subject: Architecture & Cityscape

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