Toledo

Sir Francis Seymour Haden British

Not on view

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."
Bridge at right; stream at left; two men in boat in right foreground; bridge in background at left.
"A scene at Sonning, Berkshire.
State I (Ha). A coarsely etched scene of a wooden bridge crossing a stream; in the right foreground two men, one sitting, the other standing, are fishing from a punt; a woman crosses the bridge. The punt has a dark reflection in the stream and there is indistinct work in the left distance. With the inscription 'Seymour Haden 187 (E,l.l., the last 7 did not etch)."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 331]
"Trial states: (a) 'Seymour Haden 1877.' Two impressions only. Coll. H."
[Source: Harrington, p. 94]

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