Portrait of Arthur Haden

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."
Portrait of a boy (Arthur Haden, the artist's son) with long hair, viewed in profile.
'State III: (Db, I impression; Hb) The plate reduced to 73 x 55mm'
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 45]
'Trial Proof: (b) The plate reduced as above [above: Trial Proof: (a): 'F.S.Haden' in heavy dry-point below, to the right, and to the left, in faint characters, 'April 1858']' [Source: Harrington, p. 3]