The Two Asses and Dundrum River (two prints, mounted together)

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."
At left, two asses standing before trees with an inscription filling lower half of sheet; at right, a river with steep banks at center, curved through a wooded landscape. Two seperate prints mounted together.
"Trial Proof: (a) Less work on a flat portion of the bank near the centre of the plate, the corresponding reflection being almost entirely white. Coll. H.
First.-Before the insertion of name of title. The small white reflection entirely shaded. The words, 'Done under the acid...without additional work,' faintly visible in left upper corner."
[Source: Harrington, p. 24]
"MMA, Orc, and SCMA have the two trimmed and mounted very closely...
46A State II (H2) Printed by F Goulding for publication in the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, new series, II (1867), facing p. 118. The foul-biting burnished and the inscription added: 'This place is a part...'"
46B State II (H1) Printed by F. Goulding for publiscation in the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, new series, II (1867), 167. Additional work on the flat portion of the bank and the corresponding reflection. The inscription of state I is wearing, and usually impressions have been cosmetically printed so that the inscription is not visible."
[Schneiderman, p. 129]