Special Collections Department

Etching Collection

1853 - 1931

Graphics Collection Number: 102
Accessioned: Gift of A. J. Rosenfeld, 1960.
Extent: One box, 12 items.
Content: Etchings.
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processed: 1996 by Iris Snyder.

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Biographical Note
Scope Note
Contents List

Biographical Note

Felix Buhot (1847-1898) was born and educated in Valognes, Normandy. He moved to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, studying painting and drawing. His early artistic works included designing music score covers, and in the 1870s, he turned to etching reproductions of paintings for magazines and book illustrations. At the same time, he produced etchings of his own drawings, often scenes of France and later of England. He frequently printed on old or unusual papers to add interest to his images. By the 1880s he turned away from printmaking, focusing almost entirely on painting, although he continued to exhibit his prints. During the last ten years of his life, he suffered from depression and virtually abandoned his artistic career.

Kerr Eby (1889-1946) was born in Japan, the son of American missionaries. His only formal art training was a year at Pratt Institute. As a young man, he worked at the American Lithographing Company and as a surveyer in Canada. Returning to New York, he began to produce etchings, primarily of rural landscapes. His service in France during World War I inspired his best work: black and white etchings showing unromanticized images of soldiers and troop movements against a bleak landscape. Later in his career, he produced many landscape prints of scenes from the United States, Europe, and North Africa.

James McBey (1883-1959) was born in the fishing village of Newburgh, Scotland. He worked at a bank while teaching himself the techniques of etching. His early subjects were primarily the landscapes and seascapes of his home. Greatly influenced by the engravings of Rembrandt, he traveled to Holland and later to the Middle East, capturing images of his travels in his etchings.

Charles Meryon (1821-1868) was born in Paris. He entered the Navy in 1837, and in the next ten years traveled to Greece, North Africa, South America, and the South Pacific. He studied art, particularly watercolor painting and etching, leaving the Navy in 1838 to work full-time as an artist. In 1858, he was admitted to a mental hospital, apparently suffering from depression and hallucinations. Emotional problems would continue to plague him until his death from exhaustion and starvation in 1868. Meryon is best known for his images of the architecture of Paris, which have an atmospheric, often brooding quality.

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts but spent his career as a painter, printmaker, designer, and collector in England and France. As his style developed from the realism of Courbet and Manet, he became, in the 1860s, one of the leading members of the Aesthetic Movement and a leading proponent of Japonesme. He acted as an important link between the avant-garde artistic worlds of Europe and the United States. He was one of the great masters of etching, strongly influenced by Dutch art, and was one of the inspirations of the etching revival of the late nineteenth century.

Anders Zorn (1860-1920), born in Mora, Sweden, was a painter, etcher and sculptor. After early artistic training at the Kuigliga Akademi in Sweden, he traveled to London to try to establish an international career as a watercolorist. In 1887, he abandoned watercolor for oil painting, settling in Paris, gaining recognition for his portraits and nudes. His style was adapted from Impressionists including Manet and Renoir, from salon artists such as Sargent, and from the Old Masters. He started etching in England in 1882 with a technique much inspired by Rembrandt.

Sources:

Richard S. Schneiderman, The Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints of Charles Meryon. London: Garton & Co., 1990.

Jay Mckean Fisher & Colles Baxter, Felix Buhot: Peintre-Graveur, Prints, Drawings, and Paintings. The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1983.

Malcolm C. Salaman, The Etchings of James McBey, London: Halton & Truscott Smith, 1929 Dictionary of Art. Macmillan, 1996.

Scope and Contents Note

This collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century etchings has no overall theme or concept. It contains a group of etchings by well-known artists from England, France, and the United States which were gathered into this collection at some time in the past, possibly by the donor A. J. Rosenfeld. The prints are in generally good condition, although there is some staining and residual hinge marks. Some of the etchings were signed by the artist, some not, as was common during this period.

Contents List

Box -- Folder -- Contents


F1        Felix Buhot, "Ma Petite Ville"
               Signed and inscribed.  1873-4.
     
F2        Felix Buhot, "Le Peintre de Marine", circa 1879
               Signed and red monogram. Printed on a brown, pseudo-parchment                        
                paper.

F3        Kerr Eby, "New England Winter"
               Signed and marked Ed. 90.  Collector's annotation: 1931 proof.
     
F4        Kerr Eby, "Mist on the Agawa"      

F5        James McBey, "Amsterdam from Runsdorf"
               Signed and marked XXXVIII.  Collector's annotation: edition limited to 
               40 proofs.
     
F6        James McBey, "Gamrie"
               Signed.  Collector's annotation: Hardie 151. 

F7        Charles Meryon, "Le Stryge", circa 1853
               Unsigned. "CM" in plate.

F8        James Whistler, "Nocturne Furnace"
               Signed.  Collector's annotation: sixth state of eight. One of The 26            
               Etchings.  Margins trimmed to image except cut around signature.

F9        James Whistler, "Street in Saverne"
               Unsigned.

F10       James Whistler, "Black Lion Wharf"
               Unsigned. "Whistler 1859" in plate. Collector's annotation: One of The 16
               Etchings.  Early impression.

F11       Anders Zorn, "The Swan"
               Signed.  Collector's annotation: Proof.

F12       Anders Zorn, "Gielli I"
               Signed.

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