100 Years of Illustration

Edward Penfield: An Appreciation

This illustration is from American Treasuries of the Library of Congress, a 1933 gift of Mrs. Edward Penfield.

You can find more examples of Penfield's work by searching the Internet. To my knowledge, the examples shown below are only available here. I've chosen these because the originals are in my possession and I admire his work so much. Edward Penfield was every bit as good a designer as he was an illustrator, which made him unique for his day. There were other very competent designers working at the same time for the same clients, but their illustrations were not up to the standards that Penfield set.

There were great illustrators, too, and we shall see their work in later posts, but they did not design. He was also an art director, or art editor (Job descriptions were in their infancy then) who left the office, so to speak, to freelance. He was a teacher in his earlier years at the Art Student's League of New York, and in the last years of his life, President of the Society of Illustrators from 1921 to 1923. Unfortunately, he suffered a severe back injury from a fall in 1924 and died the following year.

Certainly he was influenced by Japanese art in the way Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was, but less obviously so, in my opinion. I feel that it was in Penfield's nature to simplify and refine his work in his own way and from his own point of view.

It is because of his extraordinary talents as both illustrator and designer that I begin this web log with his work. I hope you enjoy what you see, and will feel free to comment to ensure a continuing dialogue.

Edward Penfield: Betwen Towns in Spain, 1906

Penfield's European stay ends with his visit to Spain. The quality of the drawings and reproduction of two pieces, Between Towns in Spain, Scribner's for October 1906; and Spanish Impressions, Scribner's for October 1907 suffer when seen after the splendid work done in Holland. I include here only one illustration, from the 1906 issue, because I think it shows how much one's surroundings influence an illustrator's work. I feel certain that he was probably overwhelmed by the paintings he saw of the Spanish greats, such as Velasquez, Goya, and Greco to name just a few. The illustration above and the enlargement below suggest to me that he wanted to work in a new and more painterly manner. It was also a little sloppy with a poorly painted background.

What made Penfield great was his mastery of design as well as illustration, one an important counterpoint to the other. This technique finds him at a loss of control and conviction. It should help to convince illustrators struggling with their development and style that they are often better off to stay with the style they know best and with which they are more comfortable.

Edward Penfield: The Magenta Village, 1906

This piece appeared in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for July 1906. The illustrations aren't directly related to the text, nor was it clear which village it was. From a crude map within text, it appears to be at the intersection of railroad tracks and a canal just west of the Zuyder Zee, whence he came. Suffice to say, Penfield has identified it only as the Magenta Village and if you have any suggestions to its identity, please feel free to comment.

Again, we see a lovely page layout and a wonderful chapter heading.

Click on image to enlarge.

These individual illustrations are so good that they deserve closer inspection. If only the primitive reproduction process of the day and the fading of printing inks used hadn't dulled the color.

Click on image to enlarge this interior of a shoe shop where klompen are sold. This appears to have been drawn from photos, models set up in a way that illustrators usually work from. I would bet that the character on the right is the author-illustrator himself (see inset).

Penfield wrote: "The shoe-shop did not display a large gold sign or show any indication outside of its nature, but those of us who wished a pair of wooden klompen, and visited the shop for that purpose, soon found that shoes were a minor consideration, and fell to sketching the interior, continuing our purchasing only as an excuse for our staying. The walls were of wood, painted Indian red. Things partly used and party saved were strewn here and there. Yellow tarpaulins and blue fishing coats hung from the rafters, and a Delft tiled fireplace with old copper and brass belongings shone in its dark casement."

Click on image above to enlarge. Penfield describes the scene: "Everyone seemed to be a symphony as we stood there. When the men removed their big blue patched coats they exposed magenta-colored shirts–some new, others faded to soft purples and grays, with new patches of bright magenta and other patches of the same color in different weather-worn degrees. With partly closed eyes, looking down the broad pathway, magenta was overwhelming. It showed on the red tiles of the tiny houses, on the shirts of the men, it peeped up from the brick pavement, and a soft haze near the horizon scintillated the colors. The blue and black in the girls' costumes and the greenish-blue gables served only to accentuate the color and made it more pleasing. 'Let us call it the Magenta Village,' said the girl in the sun-bonnet. An English painter and his wife echoed her statement, and we straightaway proceeded to the café to christen our new-found haven."

We have no introduction to those mentioned above and can only guess that he had journeyed to the village to meet up with the English painter and his wife and perhaps work in his studio. Penfield does write: "Days of work under the tiled and moss-grown roof ot the attic studio, lined with old patched sails, bleached and rotted by sun and water, but breathing stories of the sea; Lypje, with cheeks and neck like rose-leaves on ivory, tall, hoydenish, but good natured, and her old uncle, whose days for the trawling net and line were over . . . . "

Was Lypje the girl in the sun-bonnet? I guess we'll never know.

Perhaps this is her uncle, described above. A wonderful pen-and-ink drawing.

Edward Penfield: Holland from the Stern of a Boeier, 1903

In this account, published in the December 1903 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine, Penfield finds himself in the busy port of Rotterdam pondering how he might find passage through the canals and across the Zuyder Zee to Friesland. He began making sketches of the various marine craft and caught the attention of a barge skipper who congratulated him on his work. To quote Penfield, " 'Mooi! mooi!' " he said, and . . . that means 'good!' in Dutch . . . . ' Yes, there was room for a passenger . . . we sail any time today!' " We are told that, though it rains twenty times in a month, the day turned out to be bright and beautiful. Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge these magnificent drawings that filled a page. Fortunately, the color register is much better than other pages I've uploaded.

Penfield wrote, "Here comes a cart at a brisk pace, drawn by a dog so small as to be ridiculously out of proportion to his burden. Patient little slaves and too often abused! Not infrequently the driver perches himself on the top of an already heavy load and uses his whip with an animation that would much better be employed elsewhere." Click on image to enlarge.

Edward Penfield: A Christmas at Café Spaander, 1902

These illustrations appeared in Penfield's story in the December 1902 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine. His text began, "INSLEY should have been at home. He had been working hard all summer in the little Dutch fishing village, but it had taken him until now to finish his pictures and get them together for his annual exhibition in London." The reference is to Albert Babb Insley (1842-1937) one of America's greatest landscape painters of the time.

Penfield continues: "During the summer he [Insley] and half a dozen fellow artists had made the café their headquarters, and things had been jolly enough. In the evenings, after their day's work, these friends would sit at the little tables on the veranda chatting over their coffee, or watching the incoming fishing boats, their great patched sails holding the evening light." Click on these two images to enlarge.

What is curious about this illustration is the central figure holding the cigar. I believe it is Penfield drawing himself. You can check it out with the photo of him that appeared earlier in this account.

Most of Insley's models had been the children of fishermen, but Pietje,a beautiful young woman of 17, who had kept the kids in line for him and posed occasionally, was his favorite. The story centers about her and her younger sister, Katrina, and the arrival of Christmas after a poor fishing season and a lack of presents for the children of the village.

This is Katrina in a pensive mood.

The lovely Pietje, another wonderful illustration by Penfield, and a close-up to admire his skillful delineation and restrained use of color. Much, of course, is lost to the primitive state of four-color process reproduction in its early days. Imagine how that would look today!

So as not to leave you in suspense, in the end a grand old Albert Babb Insley saved the day with presents for all the children.

Edward Penfield: Early Work

Portrait of Edward Penfield by William Vander Wyde (1871?-1929)
from a negative, gelatin on glass in the possession of
George Eastman House. Gift of New York Public Library

Edward Penfield was born in Brooklyn NY in 1866. I’m guessing that the photo above was taken during the last decade of the 19th century when Penfield had begun to make his mark in the New York literary scene as an influentional illustrator, designer, and art editor of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Weekly, and Bazaar from 1891 through 1901. His outstanding work in a student exhibition at the Art Students League had caught the attention of Harper’s art editor of the time and he was given illustration assignments such as this one for a feature at the back of the book, Editor’s Drawer, for the December 1896 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.

It appears to have been drawn in pen with a spatter technique as background.

Click on the image to enlarge the drawing.

Illustrations in two colors from a story in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for May 1903. This is the title page and inserted illustrations follow. Penfield has changed his style and now signs his work with a chop.

I've always loved this drawing. It was used only 2 x 2.5 inches in size. That is one very fine action horse drawing and had to be drawn from a photograph. Click on image to enlarge.

It looks like brush or brush and a very flexible dip pen. The textured pattern is similar to that achieved by drawing with litho crayon on coquille board, as many newspaper cartoonists did at that time and in later years. That's awfully good anatomical drawing. It might have had its origins in a photo, or portions thereof, but Penfield has made the work all his own.

These two guys in the foreground look photographic because of the lack of depth. The entire group looks as if they were photographed with a longer than normal lens. A critical comment might be that they all look too much alike to anyone who has ever attended a track meet. But then I haven't read the text, so maybe they are supposed to resemble each other.

These characters are diverse and well delineated.

More to come. Stay tuned.

Edward Penfield: Amsterdam Impressions, 1905

The way these blogs work with newest posts at the top is a puzzle to solve. I want to tell you about this great genius who has been called the father of the American poster movement. He was a brilliant art director and illustrator whose works were way ahead of his time – they are excellent examples of great design as well as illustration. The bio and a photo of Penfield will appear later in a later post.

These illustrations are from an article that was featured in the January 1905 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine. It will be 100 years old in a few months. It was a significant assignment and entailed a trip across the Atlantic. He went to the Netherlands to do a series of articles depicting contemporary life in Holland. It established his reputation, and upon his return home he contributed regularly to mainstream monthlies such as Collier's, Life and The Saturday Evening Post.

Click on these images for enlarged views. This is an example of beautiful page layout and splendid illustration as illumination. He has letterspaced the hand lettering at the top, caps and lower case, considered a no-no by typographers of later years. Penfield gets away with it without a problem and it gives the work a very personal touch.

The scans are directly from the printed pages and reflect the dulll colors that are the product of American four-color printing in its infancy.

Enlarged views of the individual figures.

A house along a canal in Amsterdam. It ran the length of the 9.25 inch page as a right-hand sidebar.

Look at this marvelous portrait. He had obviously seen the Vermeers and instead of copying the Old Master, he interpreted the character in his own way and to satisfy the production requirements of the magazine.

He described the model as "... a girl, sweet and demure, who looked as if she was part of the Middle Ages, when people went about dressed like checker-boards. Her costume was black on the right side and the left was scarlet, with the exception of the sleeve, which was black.

"The serving girl spoke 'vaar leetle Englais,' but I managed to to make out that it was the costume of the Amsterdam orphan from 'Ze Charity School.' This costume was given to this institution in the fourteenth century and has been preserved to the present day."

The detail reveals Penfield's mastery of line and color. The entire illustration, above, was printed full-page with an image size of 4.75 by 7.25 inches.

Three little maids of Marken is the title of this full page illustration, image size: 6.75 by 4.75 inches.
Click on it for an enlarged view.

A Marken Interior is the title of this tour-de-force of architectural illustration. Marken is a very picturesque island village that has always been popular with tourists to the Netherlands. Penfield wrote, "Everyone you meet advises Marken ... and rightly so, for it takes you out into the country away from the modern influences, and lands you in an atmosphere of unadulterated Dutchness."

A Marken fishing boat. Click on image to enlarge.

Examples of Penfield's outstanding rendering in line. It looks to me like brush and probably a flexible pen for the thinner line. Whichever it is, it's mastery of the medium.

Click this image to enlarge. Stay tuned. There will be more coming up soon.