John Taylor Arms

Cathedral of Saint Cyr and Saint Julitta, Nevers

1929

Etching and drypoint on greenish cream wove paper, 3 1/4 x 1 15/16 inches (81 x 48 mm), full margins. Signed, dated, and inscribed "III" in pencil. Number 46 from the French Churche...

Etching on antique wove Catalunya-Spain watermarked paper, 12 x 5 inches (305 x 127 mm), full margins. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. In excellent condition with light ton...

Arms, John Taylor (American, 1887-1953). MEMENTO VIVARE, NOTRE DAME, EVREUX. Fletcher 407. Etching, 1947. Number 47 of the French Church Series. This is Proof No. ii of four Trial Pr...

'Rocamadour' (French Church Series # 10), etching, 1927, edition 50, Fletcher 186. Signed, dated, and annotated 'First State' in pencil. Titled and dated 'Rocamadour 1926' in the plate, bottom right. A superb, finely detailed impression, in dark brown ink, on buff laid Japan paper, with full margins (1 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 13 3/4 x 10 inches (349 x 254 mm); sheet size 15 3/4 x 13 5/8 inches (400 x 346 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Literature: illustrated in Dorothy Noyes Arms, 'Churches of France', The Macmillan Company, 1929. Impressions of this work are in the permanent collections of the Blanton Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Davis Museum (Wellesley), McNay Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Whitney Museum of Art. ABOUT THE SUBJECT Rocamadour is a small clifftop village in south-central France. It is known for the Cité Réligieuse complex of religious buildings, accessed via the Grand Escalier staircase. It includes the Chapelle Notre-Dame, with its Black Madonna statue, and the Romanesque-Gothic Basilica of St-Sauveur. ABOUT THE ARTIST “John Taylor Arms will live on and on and future generations centuries from now will marvel at his work... . As a friend and as a man, he fully matched his superb work.” —John Winkler, printmaker Born in Washington, D.C. in 1887, John Taylor Arms attended the Lawrenceville School and began the study of law at Princeton University. In 1907, he transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and took up the study of architecture. Arms evolved his unique drafting style, with its highly realistic, precise detail and exquisitely rendered effects of light, from his experience and practice as an architectural student. He graduated in 1911 and completed a master’s degree the following year. He then worked as a draftsman with the well-known Carrere and Hastings Company in New York. In 1913 Arms was given a hobbyist’s etching set, and he began to dabble with copperplate and acid. In 1915, after copying a handful of prints by Jongkind and other Etching Revivalists, Arms created his first original etching. His early experiments were picturesque views of European villages, reflecting the influence of Whistler. He inked and printed several of these plates in color in the manner of Charles Mielatz...