London Night, Whiskey and Tea

<p>The American printmaker Joseph Pennell first attempted mezzotint earlier in 1909, with an atmospheric nighttime view of London similar to the one seen in his <em>London Night, Whiskey and Tea</em>. In reference to the Baroque English architect Christopher Wren’s London skyline, Pennell wrote, “And I am not ashamed of it—to try to render as well as I could Wren’s realized dream, so I scraped and scraped and scraped my drawing from dark to light, and I have done what I could.” Pennell burnished these nocturnal reflections on the Thames in the mode of James McNeill Whistler, a close family friend. A later owner enhanced this similarity by matting around the signature, an homage to the tabs Whistler left on his later etchings.</p>