Croquis in Burty's Garden

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."
A river landscape scene with two figures at the bank, crouching by a tree, leaning to left.
"Published State: First.-An impromptu sketch to show M. Burty how to suggest, in etching, the direction of the growth of the bark of a tree. Twelve impressions printed. Colls. Brit. Mus.; Lenox Library, New York; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo; H. Two or three impressions, with the lines of erasure across the plate, printed."
[Source: Harrington, p. 42]
"Drake and Harrington state that twelve impressions were printed, which is supported by the cancellation inscription. However, the annotation on the MMA impression casts some doubt on this. Drake states that the plate was cancled by Auguste Delâtre, which explains the French cancellation terms and the initials AD.
State I (Da; H1, 12 impressions). A river landscape scene with two figures at the bank has been roughly sketched in and etched; the majority of work on the central tree."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 191]