The Three Sisters
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."
View of a park with a meandering path lined with trees; three darker tree trunks seen in the foreground at right.
"Published States: Second.-A few dry-point touches are added here and there-viz. in right lower corner, in the centre on the knoll, on the left side of the tree-stump to the left, and in the bank beyond it."
[Source: Harrington, p. 62 ]
"State IV (H2). Additional drypoint work at the bottom and center of the knoll at the left, to the right and left of the top of the stump, and drypoint flecks in lower right approx. 20 mm. above bottom."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 249]
