Albert Pennoyer (1888-1957) American, Landscape Pastel on Paper. Shows an idyllic stream winding its way towards a farmstead in the distance. Signed bottom left.
Overall Size: 21 3/4 x 29 3/4 in.
Sight Size: 19 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
#4744
Albert Sheldon Pennoyer was born in Oakland, California on April 5th, 1888. His early education was spent at boarding schools in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and Geneva, Switzerland, where he developed a consuming curiosity for mechanical work. He attended the University of California, Berkeley for one year before moving to Paris to study architecture at the École des Beaux Arts. Inspired by the City of Lights, Pennoyer’s curiosity soon turned to painting. In addition to periods of study at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière, the Académie Julian, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennoyer traveled across Europe as a pupil of such prominent artists of the time as Giuseppe Casciaro and Harold Speed. When World War I broke out, Pennoyer returned to the United States. Called to active duty in 1917, he served with the camouflage unit of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until 1920, when he joined the Officers’ Reserve Corps. In 1921 he opened his own studio on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which he would maintain for nearly forty years. His paintings, executed in pastel, gouache, watercolor, and oils, were successfully exhibited at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, Golden Gate Park Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and several prominent galleries in New York and California. Pennoyer served again during World War II, this time in the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before being assigned as an MFAA Officer in North Africa and Italy. During his service as a Monuments Man, he was involved in the safeguarding, repair, and recovery of Italy’s rich cultural heritage, which faced destruction from bombing, looting, and exposure to the elements. The surviving photographic record of the work of the Monuments Men in Italy is largely due to the tireless efforts of Pennoyer, who used a Leica camera to capture not only the physical devastation of Italy but the emotional toll it had exacted from its citizens. The A. Sheldon Pennoyer Photographic Collection is today conserved at Princeton University. Following his return to the United States Pennoyer resumed his career as a successful painter, and became known for his railroad scenes, particularly his regular commissions from the Union Pacific Railroad. He wrote and illustrated Locomotives in Our Lives (1954) and founded the club Railroadians of America. Pennoyer was a member of the American Federation of Arts, the American Watercolor Society, Allied Artists of America, and the American Artists Professional League. Today, his paintings are included in prominent public and private collections, including the Oakland Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Henry Ford Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute, West Point Military Academy, and the De Young Museum. In June of 1957 Pennoyer traveled to Spain to paint watercolors in preparation for a book on Spanish châteaux, but was tragically killed in a car accident near Madrid just two months later.
