Bit of River Bank (Sonning Bank)

Scena di una riva del Tamigi a Sonning; sullo sfondo, fattorie ed edifici; area non lavorata a sinistra. Acquaforte e puntasecca, 1865, non firmata; stampata su carta vergata, con margini, condizioni perfette. Questa impressione su carta vergata fu stampata nel 1868 per lo scarso primo volume di Philip Gilbert Hamerton, ' Etching and Etchers. Seymour Haden era l'improbabile combinazione di un chirurgo e un incisore. Sebbene abbia perseguito una carriera medica di grande successo, è ricordato soprattutto per i suoi lavori all'acquaforte e per i suoi scritti sull'acquaforte. Fece parte di un gruppo di artisti, tra cui James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) e Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), il cui appassionato interesse per questo mezzo portò al cosiddetto revival dell'acquaforte, un periodo che durò fino al XX secolo. L'esaltazione dell'acquaforte per le sue intrinseche qualità spontanee raggiunse il suo apice durante questo periodo. Mentre la linea dell'ago da acquaforte, scrisse Haden, era "libera, espressiva, piena di vivacità", quella del bulino era "fredda, costretta, poco interessante" e "senza identità". Bibliografia Henry Nazeby Harrington ' The Engraved Work of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, P.R.E.: an illustrated and descriptive catalogue. Liverpool, 1910, cat. no. (116.II); Richard S. Schneiderman ' A Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints of Sir Francis Seymour Haden. London, 1983, cat. no. (106.IV). Scene of a Thames river bank at Sonning; in the background, farms and buildings; unworked area to the left. Etching and drypoint, 1865, not signed; printed on laid paper, with margins, perfect condition. This impression on laid paper was printed in 1868 for Philip Gilbert Hamerton's very scarce first volume of Etching and Etchers. Image size: 4 x 6 1/4 inches (102 x 157 mm) with an irregular platemark, as printed. ' Seymour Haden was the unlikely combination of a surgeon and an etcher. Although he pursued a very successful medical career, he is mostly remembered for his etched work as well as for his writings on etching. He was one of a group of artists, including James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Alphonse Legros (1837–1911), whose passionate interest in the medium led to the so-called etching revival, a period that lasted well into the twentieth century. The extolling of etching for its inherent spontaneous qualities reached its pinnacle during this time. While the line of the etching needle, Haden wrote, was "free, expressive, full of vivacity," that of the burin was "cold, constrained, uninteresting," and "without identity." Bibliografia Henry Nazeby Harrington ' The Engraved Work of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, P.R.E.: an illustrated and descriptive catalogue. Liverpool, 1910, cat. no. (116.II); Richard S. Schneiderman ' A Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints of Sir Francis Seymour Haden. London, 1983, cat. no. (106.IV). Cfr.