Little Calais Pier (Le Port de Calais)
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." The present print of a pair of hands etching, inscribed with a line from Horace that translates as, "O, sweet solace of labors," was executed for the title page of Haden’s first publication, Études à l’eau-forte (Studies in Etching).
Headpiece to the Catalogue of Haden's Études à l'eau-forte (Paris & London, 1865-1866); Panoramic view of the port in Calais; a sail boat at left and a pier at right.
"Published States: First.-'Calais S. Haden 1865 3 a.m.' Published as a head-piece in the text of Études à l'eau-forte."
[Source: Harrington, p. 47]
"State III (D1,H1). Published in the Études à l'eau-forte (headpiece to the Catalogue). The inscription added 3 a.m."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 207]
