Joseph Pennell. 1857-1926.
The Gates of Pedro Miguel Lock. 1912. Lithograph. Wuerth 231. 22 x 16 7/8 (sheet 24 7/8 x 18 5/8). Panama Canal series #19. Edition 50. A rich, well-inked printing on 'MBM' countermarked laid paper, professionally backed with archival paper.o Printed on the full sheet with deckle edges. Signed and titled in pencil. $2,250.
Pennell wrote, "I went to the Panama Camal because I believed the greatest engineering work the world has ever seen would give me the greatest artistic inspiration of my life. I went because I believed that atthe Canal I should see the Wonder of Work, the Picturesqueness of Labour, realized on the grandest scale. I believed that if but little of all I had heard of the huge locks, the great dam, were true, on the Isthmus of Panama, I should find the most marvelous subjects of all times, so risked it -- a risk of fifteen thousand miles, for possible picturesqueness.
I hope my work may serve as a record of the building of the Canal,--a record of subjects, which exist no longer, but which in my lighographs, I hope, may, to the best of my ability, be preserved -- a memory of hte greatest work of modern times, -- a record of the greatest American achievement of all time "
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