American Soldiers bivouacked next to a Mosque in North Africa
North Africa: 1940s. Pencil and charcoal. 8 x 12.75 inches. Framed and glazed.
Painter, architect, and railroad aficionado, Albert Sheldon Pennoyer was born in Oakland, California on April 5, 1888. His early education was spent at boarding schools in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and Geneva, Switzerland, where he developed a consuming curiosity for the mechanics of how things 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.
Upon the outbreak of World War I, 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 was once again called to action during World War II. He served 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. Pennoyer worked alongside Monuments Men Capt. Basil Marriott and Lt. Col. John Bryan Ward-Perkins in Rome, Capt. Roderick Enthoven and Lt. Frederick Hartt in Florence, and Capt. Deane Keller in Pisa. He also participated in the recovery effort at numerous art repositories in the Tuscan countryside, where Florentine officials had evacuated hundreds of works of art from churches and public collections, principally the Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace and Bargello. Item #51-1606
Price: $500.00