Dusty Millers
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."
"State I: Weeds and a square stone, possibly a bridge parapet, fill the foreground; in the middle distance two men in a punt, one fishing-his pole incomplete-the other bending over; behind them to the left is a mill, and a horse and a wagon being loaded with sacks by two men. The windows of the mill above the men in the wagon are lightly bitten in. The background, especially at the right, is very sketchy. With the inscription 'Seymour Haden 1871' (E,l.l.; the last 7 is incomplete and appears as a I)."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 335]
