Kerr Eby, N.A. Figurative Prints

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...

Snow Fields. 1924. Etching. Giardina 92. 7 1/2 x 12 3/4 (sheet 9 3/4 x 14 7/8). Edition 90-100. A rich impression with plate tone printed on cream-laid paper. Illustrated: Flint, Contemporary American Prints, 1931; Signed and annotated 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby. The scene is probably Westport or Cos Cob, Connecticut. 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...

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...

Polo Plate B. 1927. Aquatint. Giardina 113. 8 5/8 in. x 15 9/16 (sheet 12 3/4 x 19 1/8) . Edition of 90. Published state. A barely-noticeable 1/8-inch abr...

White Tails in the Morning. 1935. Etching. Giardina catalog 183. state i. 8 1/4 x 12 1/2 (sheet 10 5/8 x 14 7/8). Edition approximately 100. Mat line; otherwise in good condition. A fine impression with subtle plate tone, printed by the artist on cream wove paper. Signed and annotated 'imp' in pencil. where the artist lived. Housed in a 16 x 20-inch archival mat. The scene is probably near the artist's farmhouse in Westport, Connecticut. Kerr Eby...

Kerr Eby captures an interior room of a ruined house with a table surrounded by six dead soldiers in sitting and prone positions. They died where they sat in a log shelter pierced by cannon fire. One holds a bottle. This image is in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Eby was born in 1890 in Tokyo, Japan, the son of Methodist missionaries from Canada. He grew up studying art, which his parents encouraged, as his mother came from a family of prominent artists. As a boy he worked as a printer’s apprentice in a newspaper office which may have encouraged his interest in printing as an artistic medium. 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. During this period he formed a number of influential friendships with major artists such as John Henry Twachtman and Childe Hassam and joined a summer artists’ colony founded by them at Cos Cob, Connecticut When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Eby, too, became involved. After unsuccessful efforts to obtain a commission as an artist, he enlisted and ultimately was assigned to the 40th Engineers, Artillery Brigade, Camouflage Division, which was sent to the war front where the Division helped to protect the troops. Eby saw much battle action, especially in northeastern France, including at Belleau Wood and Meuse-Argonne, and in 1918, he participated in the battles of Château-Thierry and Saint-Mihiel, which were instrumental in preventing the Germans from advancing on Paris. In addition to his work as a camoufleur, he also made drawings of the images he witnessed on the battlefield. In 1936, concerned about the unstable world situation that would soon lead to World War II, Eby published his book "War" (Yale University Press, New Haven) which illustrated 28 prints and drawings he had made during his experience in World War I and which included an essay outlining his abhorrence of war and his opinion of its futility and barbarity. Although he was himself too old to serve during the Second World War, he served as a correspondent in the Pacific in the combat artist program developed by Abbott Laboratories (which was instrumental in the development of plasma and hired artists to depict its use in the war). Eby again drew images of soldiers, and in November 1943, he went ashore with the U.S. invading force in Tarawa, one of the most brutal battles in the history of the Marines. He again witnessed much death and, again, recorded his experience in numerous prints and drawings. His friend John Taylor Arms, in a moving tribute to Eby written shortly after his death in 1946, felt that Eby, like the soldiers whose deaths he recorded, had also given his life for the cause, because Eby had contracted a tropical disease while living with the troops for three weeks in a foxhole in the jungles of Bougainville, a condition from which he never recovered and which contributed to his early death. In creating anti-war works, Eby joined a long line of artists stretching back into antiquity. Of these, Goya’s etchings...

Kerr Eby portrays the sacrifice of brave WWI soldiers in France with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. This image is a trial proof of the edition and was signed and printed by the artist. Born to Canadian missionary parents stationed in Japan, Harold Kerr...

The Cow Shed. 1946. Etching, aquatint and sandpaper ground. Giardina 211. 9 5/8 x 15 1/8. Edition 100. A rich impression printed on white 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 house...

Goatherd, Algeria. 1922. Etching. Giardina catalog 80 sheet ii. 5 1/2 x 6 2/3. Edition about 50. Signed in pencil. . 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 Eby...

Digging Clams. 1931. Etching. Giardina catalog 163. 8 3/8 x 12 5/8 (sheet 11 3/4 x 15 7/8). Edition 350 for the Chicago Society of Etchers.A rich impression printed on 'France' crea...

Mevagissey. 1925. Etching. Giardina 100. 9 7/8 x 14 1/8 (sheet 12 x 17 1/8). Early trial proof with the rain added in pencil, prior to those listed by Giardina and before the edition of 90. Mevagissey is a port in Cornwall, England. An extremely rich impression printed on cream laid paper. Signed and annotated 'trial proof' and 'imp' (imprimit) in pencil, indicating a proof printed Eby. Mevagissey (Cornish: Lannvorek) is a village, fishing port and civil parish in Cornwall, England. The village is situated approximately five miles . south of St Austell.The village nestles in a small valley and faces east to Mevagissey Bay. The inner and outer harbors are busy with a mixture of pleasure vessels and working fishing boats, the remains of a once major industry. However, tourism has supplanted fishing as the dominant industry in recent years. 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 night scenes exude mystery and the silence of nightfall, with highlights from a flickering candle or a roaring campfire set against an all-encompassing darkness. 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...