Bradford: View of a Town
In a posthumous tribute to Wadsworth, Wyndham Lewis, the artist, writer, and a founder of Vorticism, described an interwar visit the two took to Yorkshire. Lewis wrote that, from their vantage point at the top of a hill, Wadsworth pointed to the town of Halifax below: "We gazed down into its blackened labyrinth. I could see he was proud of it. ‘It’s like Hell, isn’t it?’ he said enthusiastically." Bradford, depicted here, is about five miles from Cleckheaton, where Wadsworth grew up and where his family’s mill was located. The sharpness of the image reflects the precision his learned from his studies of machine draftsmanship in Munich. As in other works, Wadsworth adopted an elevated, almost aerial view, which, combined with the reductive angular forms and the rigor of the design, creates a nearly abstract image.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bradford: View of a Town
- Artist: Edward Alexander Wadsworth (British, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire 1889–1949)
- Date: 1914
- Medium: Woodcut on gray paper
- Dimensions: Sheet: 12 1/2 in. × 10 in. (31.8 × 25.4 cm)
Image: 5 7/8 × 3 15/16 in. (15 × 10 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, PECO Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019
- Object Number: 2019.592.550
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Edward Alexander Wadsworth
ca. 1918
Edward Alexander Wadsworth
1914
Edward Alexander Wadsworth
ca. 1914
Edward Alexander Wadsworth
1918
Edward Alexander Wadsworth
1919
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