Pennell's Pen

Pennell's Pen

Joseph Pennell, famed painter, etcher, published* a gasconade, prefaced with a diatribe--Etchers and Etching. Writing it, gall scored his pen; gloom puckered his mouth. In his foreword, he denounces, derides all others who have written about etching. The curator of prints in the British Museum, he is demolished; "poor old Hamerton" (Hamerton whose works have long been the only authority on etching), he is spurned. He employs many great names, many swaggering pronouns. "Whistler," says Etcher Pennell, "Whistler and I. . . ." "Whistler and me. . . ." Down the list of the world's immortal etchers he runs his pen, here scratching out a name, there setting a black spot, occasionally making the faint checkmark of approval; Of Zorn's later prints he says: "They had become feeble and photographic beyond words," though for the other periods of that surpassing master he has some admiration. The book is illustrated with the prints of many great etchers--Whistler, Rembrandt, Pennell, Gova, Duveneck, Turner, Lepeere--in exquisite photogravure, illumined with pointed anecdote. He recounts how he talked before a certain print society "to educate it," and how after his tirade a lady "furry and smelly" sailed up to him without glancing at the gallery walls: "Oh, Mr. Pennell, your exhibition is so beautiful, and it was so sweet of you to come and tell us about it." "Yes, madame, I can say it is beautiful, because it is by the greatest artist of modern times." "Why, I thought it was yours." "I regret, madame, . . . you are looking at the works of Whistler. ..." "Great is American education," adds sardonic Pennell.

No Menace

Andrew J. Volstead clapping his hand to the shoulder of Jesus Christ in the manner of one who makes an arrest; William J. Bryan spilling a jar of wine made by holy miracle out of water; William H. Anderson at the doorway in a derby hat. This parable--a raid on the marriage feast of Cana, painted by J. Francois Kaufman and exhibited last year in Manhattan--led to the arrest and conviction of Abraham S. Baylinson, Secretary of the Society of Independent Artists, for "violation of public decency." Last week an Appellate Court reversed the decision, returned to Mr. Baylinson the fine of $100 which he had paid.

* ETCHERS AND ETCHING -- Macmillan ($12.50). A first edition of this work was published in 1919.