John Taylor Arms

Sunlight on Stone; Caudebec-en-Caux

1931

Etching on thin, bluish-green cream laid paper, 9 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches (233 x 120 mm), full margins. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. First and only state. Printed by Frederi...

Etching on antique cream laid paper with a partial watermark (likely Arches), 12 1/8 x 6 1/8 inches (308 x 156 mm), full margins. Signed and dated in pencil in the lower right margin...

Etching on antique cream laid paper, 12 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches (328 x 140 mm), full margins. Signed in pencil, lower margin. Laid down to non-archival board, general age tone and some ma...

Etching on F.J. Head & Co. watermarked cream laid paper, 8 1/8 x 7 5/8 (205 x 184 mm), full margins. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. Illustrated in Dorothy Noyes Arms, Chur...

John Taylor Arms, 'Limoges (French Church Series #32)', etching, 1932, edition 142, third (final) state impressions, Fletcher 244. Signed, dated, and annotated 'Ed 100 III' in pencil. A superb, finely detailed impression, in warm black ink, on antique, pale gray laid paper, with full margins (1 1/16 to 1 1/2 inches); adhesive stains in the bottom left and right sheet corners, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. A view of Limoges, France and the Saint-Martial Bridge from the far side of the Vienne river. According to Fletcher, author of the catalogue raisonné on the artist's graphic work, this etching is among the artist’s preferred plates. Published references: "An Appreciation to John Taylor Arms 1887-1953", in PRINT, Vol. VIII #5 P. viii, Feb.-March 1954. Impressions of this print are in the permanent collections of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, National Gallery of Art, Saint John’s University, Smithsonian Institution, and Wake Forest University. 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...

Medium: original etching. This impression on laid paper was printed in 1903 and published in Paris by the Revue de l'Art ancien et moderne. Plate size: 6 1/2 x 4 5/8 inches (167 x 11...

'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...

John Taylor Arms was known for making such finely drawn etchings that commercial tools were not good enough: He regularly used sewing needles with corks ...