Dusty Millers
Sir Francis Seymour Haden British
Not on view
Seymour Haden was the unlikely combination of a surgeon and an etcher. Although he pursued a very successful medical career, he is mostly remembered for his etched work as well as for his writings on etching. He was one of a group of artists, including James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Alphonse Legros (1837–1911), whose passionate interest in the medium led to the so-called etching revival, a period that lasted well into the twentieth century. The extolling of etching for its inherent spontaneous qualities reached its pinnacle during this time. While the line of the etching needle, Haden wrote, was "free, expressive, full of vivacity," that of the burin was "cold, constrained, uninteresting," and "without identity."
Foliage in foreground; two men loading a horse-drawn cart at left in middle ground, behind them a mill at left; man fishing at center; lightly drawn trees in background at right.
"State V (D2, H2). The sky and distant landscape removed and redrawn. The front wheel of the cart, as in states I-III, is smaller and the wooden paling below the wagon altered. The reins fall from the front of the cart and the man at the stile in the distance carries a fishing rod."
[Source: Schneiderman, p. 335]
"Published States: Second.-The sky and distance are changed. The front wheel of the cart is again smaller, and the wooden camping below it is altered. Reins fall from the front of the cart, and the man at the stile carries a fishing-rod."
[Source: Harrington, p. 93]
