Kerr Eby, N.A. Landscape Prints

Although the title 'Lobster Fleet' calls to mind numerous vessels at sea in a single spot (and there's a group in the distance), in fact the print features a lone fisherman in a smal...

Little Hall's Island. 1940. Etching and sandpaper ground. Giardina 199. 10 x 15. Edition 100. Little Hall's Island is located off the coast of Friendship. Maine. Signed and annotated 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby. Housed in a 16 x 20-inch archival mat. Eby was an Associate of the National Academy NA (1930); National Academy of Design (1934); Society of American Etchers; Chicago Society of Etchers; Philadelphia Society of Etchers; National Institute of Arts and Letters. Kerr...

The Whales Back. 1925. Etching. Giardina catalog 95 stateiii. Image: 6 1/2 x 12 (sheet 10 x 16). Trial proof, prior to the edition of 90. Illustrated in Fine Prints of the Year, 1927. A rich impression with plate tone printed on cream laid paper. Signed and annotated 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby. The scene is probably Westport or Cos Cob, Connecticut. The scene is probably Westport or Cos Cob, Connecticut. Kerr Eby...

Snow on the Aspetuck. 1927. Etching. Giardina catalog 109 state iii. Image: 6 1/16 x 10 7/8 (sheet 9 x 13 3/4). Trial proof, apart from the edition of 90. A rich impression with plate tone printed on cream-laid paper. Signed and annotated 'trial proof' and 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby Kerr Eby is one of the great 20th-century printmakers, heralded for his use of negative space and plate tone. His plates usually held a combination of drypoint and etched lines, resulting in an interplay of strong lines and delicate details. His landscapes are just as telling of his talents and skilled hand. They speak to his ability to edit, as he would enlist only one or two lines to do the work of many- letting the almost unmarked plate...

The Cow Shed. 1946. Etching, aquatint, and sandpaper ground. Giardina 211. 9 5/8 x 15 1/8. Edition 100. Tape marks at the margin edges, well away from the image. A rich impression printed on cream wove paper with full margins. Signed and annotated 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby. Housed in an 18 3/4 x 24-inch archival mat, suitable for framing. Eby is known for his stark and lovely landscapes of Connecticut in the winter. He first got to know Connecticut when he spent several summers at the artist’s colony at Cos Cob immediately before the First World War. There he became friends with the American Impressionist artist Childe Hassam, who was almost thirty years older than Eby. Eby and Hassam had a close working relationship, with the younger artist providing the older artist with technical advice on etching and the use of his etching press. Following the War, Eby married Frances Sheldon, whom he had met in Cos Cob, and the couple eventually settled in a pre-Revolutionary War saltbox...

Kerr Eby 'Shipping' also 'Shipping, Connecticut', etching and sandpaper ground, 1932, edition 100, Giardina 171. Signed in pencil and titled 'Shipping' in the bottom left sheet edge. A superb, atmospheric impression, with skillfully controlled plate tone, on heavy, cream wove paper; the full sheet with wide margins (2 to 2 3/4 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 8 3/8 x 17 1/4 inches (316 x 176 mm); sheet size 13 7/16 x 8 3/8 inches (341 x 213 mm). The scene depicted was on the Connecticut coast...

Kerr Eby 'Hungerford Bridge, London', etching and sandpaper ground, 1929, edition 90, Giardina 144. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Ed 90' in pencil. Signed again in the bottom right sheet corner. A fine, atmospheric impression, with delicate plate tone, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 1/2 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Hungerford Foot Bridge spans the River Thames in London, between Westminster Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. Eby visited Great Britain and France during 1924 and 1925. Impressions of this work are in the permanent collection of the following institutions: American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Arizona State University, Boston Public Library, Davison Art Center (Wesleyan University), Herbert F, Johnson Museum of Art, Huntington Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth College), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of American Art, New York Public Library, Smithsonian Museum of American Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST Kerr Eby was born in 1890 in Tokyo, Japan, the son of Methodist missionaries from Canada. The family returned to Vancouver when Eby was only three, and he grew up studying art encouraged by his parents as his mother was from a family of prominent artists. By age twelve, he had lived in Vancouver, Kingston, Toronto and Bracebridge where he found work as a ‘printer’s devil’ on the local Bracebridge newspaper. After graduating from high school in 1907, Eby moved to New York City to study art, first at the Pratt Institute, and later at the Art Students League. He enrolled in art classes at Pratt Institute while working for a lithographic firm earning $4.00 a week. His pay barely covered his room and drawing supplies. Within a year, starving and feeling defeated, he returned to Canada and was employed by a surveying party in Northern Ontario. Eby gradually regained his dream of becoming an artist, and in his spare time, he began to draw the surrounding wilderness landscapes. By fall he had returned to New York to attend night classes at the Art Students League while working for another lithographic firm. He spent several more summers surveying in Northern Ontario before he was able to make a living as an illustrator. During this period he formed several friendships with influential artists including John Henry Twachtman and Childe Hassam and joined a summer artists' colony founded by them at Cos Cob, Connecticut. He supported himself by working as a magazine illustrator and at the American Lithographic Company. Through diligent study and practice, Eby refined both his drawing and printmaking techniques. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Eby joined the U.S. Army. Failing to obtain a commission as an artist, he was assigned first to ambulance duty and later as a sergeant in the 40th Engineers in France. He spent most of WWI on the front line as a camouflager of the field artillery ‘big guns”. On his time off duty, he would sketch everything he witnessed, from the explosive big guns and men in action to the dead soldiers in the field. He sent the drawings home each week, and upon his return from the war, they became the basis for his first successful group of etchings. He continued creating his war-related prints throughout the 1920s and '30s as his work became widely exhibited Frederick Keppel, the renowned print dealer and a relative of Eby, became the exclusive agent for many of his print editions. With another global conflict beginning in the mid-1930s, Eby wanted to show the world the true face of war...

"The Caissons Go Rolling Along". 1929. Etching and sandpaper ground. Giardina 145. 17 3/8 x 9 1/2 (sheet 18 3/4 x 11 1/2). Edition 90. Slight mat line, otherwise find condition. A ri...

Burns Brothers, Sutton Place. 1922. Etching. Giardina catalog 90 state iv. 12 1/4 x 8 3/4 (sheet 16 x 12). Edition 50. A rich, tonal impression printed on...

Published edition, not trial proof Open Action. 1926/1928. Etching. Giardina 124. 7 x 15 1/8 (sheet 12 3/4 x 15 1/4). Trial proof, prior to the edition of 90. A rich, tonal impressi...

September 13, 1918. St. Mihiel [The Great Black Cloud]. 1934. Etching, aquatint and sandpaper ground. Giardina catalog 182 state iv. 10 3/8 x 16 (sheet 13 1/8 x 18 1/4). Edition 100. Illustrated: Prints vol. VI, no. 2, 1935, page 85; Print Collector's Quarterly 26 (1939): 82; Fine Prints of the Year, 1935; Eby. War. Provenance: Frederick Keppel & Co. A rich, beautifully wiped impression on cream-colored wove paper. Signed and annotated 'imp' and 'Edition 100' in pencil, indicating a proof printed by the artist. This is Eby's most famous etching...