Art Institute of Chicago

Firelight: Joseph Pennell, No. 2

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1896

Medium

Transfer lithograph in black on cream laid paper

Culture

United States

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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 his death, collaborating on a two-volume biography of the artist and donating their significant collection of Whistler prints and documents to the Library of Congress in 1917.

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