Maroon cloth binding with gilt title on the spine and front board.

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A pictorial topographical work on London, with illustrations by Joseph Pennell.  Exploring London landmarks between Charing Cross and St. Paul’s Cathedral. With descriptive and historical notes by Justin McCarthy and twelve full page plates and further vignettes in text by Joseph Pennell, prolific American lithographer and illustrator known for his interest in landmarks and industrial scenes around the world.

Joseph Pennell, ca 1909 while contributing to the

Illustrated London News

Joseph Pennell (July 4, 1857 – April 23, 1926) was an American draftsman, etcher, lithographer, and illustrator for books and magazines. A prolific artist, he spent most of his working life in Europe, and developed an interest in landmarks, landscapes, and industrial scenes around the world. A student of James Lambdin and Thomas Eakins, he was later influenced by James McNeill Whistler. He was married to author Elizabeth Robins, and he also was a writer.

In 1914, he published The Jew at Home: Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent with Him (1892) followed by photo-documentary works including Lithographs of War (1914), Pictures of the Wonders of Work (1915), and The Adventures of an Illustrator (1925). In later life, he and wife Elizabeth both wrote art criticism and co-authored books.

In 1884, he received a major, and life changing, commission from Century Magazine, a long-term assignment to produce drawings of London and Italy, plus English and French Cathedrals — this necessitated Pennell and his wife, the writer Elizabeth Robins Pennell, relocating from America to a new home in London, England, establishing Pennell as an Anglo-American Artist and introducing them both to new connections such as writers H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw and painters John Singer Sargent, William Morris and James McNeill Whistler – the latter had a profound influence on Joseph Pennell, and when Whistler moved to Paris in 1892, Pennell followed in 1893 and spent a period working with Whistler in his studio.

The Pennells readily engaged with London’s literary and artistic circles, co-authoring articles and books detailing their European travels, including Two Pilgrim’s Progress, an 1886 illustrated book of their journey from Florence to Rome riding a heavy tricycle, and a 1906 biography of James McNeill Whistler, not published until 1908 due to litigation with Whistler’s Executrix over whether it had been authorised by Whistler and whether the Pennells had the right to use the Whistler letters they had collected. The Pennells won the lawsuit, but not the rights to publish the letters.

In 1887, Pennell began writing as Art Critic for The Star in London, a column originally started by George Bernard Shaw, but Pennell’s outspokenness upset both the Academy and other artists, and the editor asked Elizabeth Pennell to step in and contribute, launching her career writing art criticism. Joseph Pennell was also elected a committee member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers and his growing renown as a graphic artist won commissions for book illustration. 1889 found Pennell in France, sketching ‘The devils of Notre Dame’ – stone gargoyles of the Paris Cathedral. One of these pen drawings was printed in the London Pall Mall Gazette. By 1901 he was working with William Dutt providing illustrations for his book Highways, Byways and Waterways of East Anglia : a Collection of Prose Pastorals