Seymour Haden

Wareham Bridge

1877

Shere Mill Pond, No. II (large plate). 1860. Etching and drypoint. Schneiderman 37.v/ix. 7 x 13 1/8 (sheet 10 3/4 x 16 3/8). This state is prior to publication in Études à l'Eau-Forte. Illustrated: Keppel The Golden Age of Engraving; Print Collector's Quarterly 1 (1911): 18; : Guichard, British Etchers, 1850-1940. A rich, brilliant proof with drypoint burr printed on white laid paper. Signed in pencil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shere Mill Pond, No. II was one of the most highly praised landscape prints of the etching revival. An impression was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861 under Haden’s pseudonym, H. Dean. Francis Seymour Haden used this anagram of his own name early in his career as an artist, in order to retain his anonymity and preserve his professional reputation as a surgeon. Biography: Sir Francis Seymour Haden (16 September 1818 - 1 June 1910), was an English surgeon, best known as an etcher. He was born in London, his father, Charles Thomas Haden, being a well-known doctor and lover of music. He was educated at Derby School, Christ's Hospital, and University College, London, and also studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, where he took his degree in 1840. He was admitted as a member of the College of Surgeons in London in 1842. In 1843-1844, with his friends Duval, Le Cannes and Colonel Guibout, he travelled in Italy and made his first sketches from nature. Haden attended no art school and had no art teachers, but between 1845 and 1848 he studied portfolios of prints belonging to a second-hand dealer named Love, who had a shop in Bunhill Row, the old Quaker quarter of London. Arranging the prints in chronological order, he studied the works of the great original engravers, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas van Leyden and Rembrandt. These studies, besides influencing his original work, led to his important monograph on the etched work of Rembrandt. By lecture and book, and with the aid of the memorable exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1877, he tried to give a true reflection of Rembrandt's work, giving a nobler idea of the master's mind by taking away from the list of his works many dull and unseemly plates that had long been included in the lists. His reasons were founded upon the results of a study of the master's works in chronological order, and are clearly expressed in his monograph, The Etched Work of Rembrandt critically reconsidered, privately printed in 1877, and in The Etched Work of Rembrandt True and False (1895). Haden's printmaking was invigorated by his much younger brother-in-law, James Whistler, at the Haden home in Sloane Street in 1855. A press was installed there and for a while Haden and Whistler collaborated on a series of etchings of the Thames. The relationship and project did not last. Haden followed the art of original etching with such vigour that he became not only the foremost British exponent of that art but brought about its revival in England. His strenuous efforts and perseverance, aided by the secretarial ability of Sir WR Drake, resulted in the foundation of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. As president he ruled the society with a strong hand from its first beginnings in 1880. Notwithstanding his study of the old masters of his art, Haden's own plates were very individual, and are particularly noticeable for a fine original treatment of landscape subjects, free and open in line, clear and well divided in mass, and full of a noble and dignified style of his own. Even when working from a picture his personality dominates the plate, as for example in the large plate he etched after J.M.W. Turner's "Calais Pier," which is a classical example of what interpretative work can do in black and white. Of his original plates, more than 250 in number, one of the most notable was the large "Breaking up of the Agamemnon." An early plate, rare and most beautiful, is "Thames Fisherman". "Mytton Hall" is broad in treatment, and a fine rendering of a shady avenue of yew trees leading to an old manor-house in sunlight. "Sub Tegmine" was etched in Greenwich Park in 1859; and "Early Morning--Richmond", full of the poetry and freshness of the hour, was done, according to Haden, actually at sunrise. One of the rarest and most beautiful of his plates is "A By-Road in Tipperary"; "Combe Bottom" is another; and "Shere Mill Pond" (both the small study and the larger plate), "Sunset in Ireland," "Penton Hook," "Grim Spain" and "Evening Fishing, Longparish," are also notable examples of his genius. A catalogue of his works was begun by Sir William Drake and completed by Harrington in 1880. During later years Haden began to practise the sister art...

Canyon Road, Santa Fe By. William Howard Shuster (American, 1893-1969) Signed Lower Right Edition of 100 Lower Center Titled Lower Left Unframed: 4" x 4.75" Framed: 15.75" x 15.25" A realist and early modernist painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and sculptor, Will Shuster became known primarily for his work in New Mexico where in 1920, he settled in Santa Fe, having been encouraged to come there by John Sloan. He had studied electrical engineering at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and later was a student of Sloan's in Santa Fe in both etching and painting. He was in World War I, where he suffered a gas attack. On his return, he studied with J William Server in Philadelphia but was advised to go West for his health. In Santa Fe in 1921, he became one of the founding members of Los Cinco Pintores...

SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR HADEN (1818-1910) A LANCASHIRE RIVER, 1881 (Schneiderman 203 viii/ix; Harrington 215 ii/ii) Original etching with drypoint. Signed in pencil., image 11 x 16. A large sheet, 18 x 22 inches with 3 inch margins. In very good condition. According to British dealer...

Schneiderman catalog 186 state .xii. 13 1/4 X 17 1/2 (sheet 18 5/8 x 25 5/8). Edition of 50 in this state, published by the Fine Art Society. A fine impression printed on cream wove paper with full margins. Toning in the image, otherwise good condition. Signed in pencil. Housed in a 22 x 28-inch archival mat, suitable for framing. Born in 1818, Sir Francis Seymour Haden was an etcher, collector and surgeon. He studied at the Derby School, Christ’s Hospital and University College in London. He also studied at the medical schools of the Sorbonne in Paris and at Grenoble. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1842 and he was made a fellow in 1857. He was an honorary surgeon to the Department of Science and Art from 1851 to 1867 and in 1847 he settled into a private practice. Haden was a vice-president of the obstetrical society of London and one of the founders of the Royal Hospital for Incurables in 1850. He was the first President of the Royal Society of Painter-Echers. In 1858, Haden encouraged James McNeil Whistler to work from nature and consequently, Whistler dedicated his first set of etchings entitled “French Set”, to Haden. The etchings were printed by Auguste Delâtre in Paris and marketed, with some help from Haden, in London. In 1859 Whistler settled in London and often visited Haden’s Sloane Street home. Whistler executed a number of paintings and etchings of domestic scenes within Haden’s home, among them “Reading By Lamplight...