DOI issue:
No. 190 (December, 1912)
DOI article:Weitenkampf, Frank: The etched work of Cadwallader Washburn
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0417
The Etched Work of Cadwallcider Washburn
From the Original Etching
BORDA GARDEN, FROM SAN ANTONIO BY CADWALLADER WASHBURN
technical facility, or that the appearance of
greater definiteness and sureness in the architec-
tural plates may be due, in part at least, to the
subjects. In the Norlands series one balks at the
somewhat fumbling rendering of water in The
Turn in the Creek, for instance, or at the appar-
ently meaningless foreground in Elms at Early
Sunrise. Or the juicy application of dry point in
Creek Meadow (the first plate) or Bog Creek seems
not entirely conscious of purpose, something like
aimless gestures in speech.
Yet in Martin Stream and The Androscoggin River
the water is good, treated with some of the sim-
plicity of Haden or Platt. In Wood Road or The
Androscoggin River at Strickland’s Ferry (simple
and direct in conception and composition) what is
elsewhere an apparent or real insufficiency of state-
ment resolves itself into a delightful example of
repression of detail, while in Road Near Tur-
ner, the summariness brings up recollections of
Pissarro or Raffaelli.
Throughout these Norlands plates one finds a
delicately expressed feeling for light and air.
Quivering, pulsating sunlight and atmosphere fill
scenes such as Elms at Early Sunrise; Meadow
near Martin’s Stream (a crisp impression of sunny
nature) among others. That feature takes us
from the contemplation of details in execution to
the consideration of a more fundamental charac-
teristic, the expression, in these Maine views, of
the charm of everyday nature. The old tree in
the corner of the lot, the brook winding through
meadow and beneath tangled undergrowth or
water plants, the roa,d through the woods, with
their ever-present note of mystery—these things
are set down with an absence of any human or
animal element. The resultant feeling of remote-
ness centers attention on the mood awakened by
nature alone. These Norlands dry points are
pure landscape art, a type occurring quite fre-
quently in our first noteworthy movement in
painter etching, about thirty years ago, but
strangely rare in the present revival. Mr. Wash-
burn’s interest in his native soil and the emotions
appealed to in its scenery, emphasize again the
importance in art of the combination of national
characteristics with a given personality, the im-
portant role of local influences.
Lin
From the Original Etching
BORDA GARDEN, FROM SAN ANTONIO BY CADWALLADER WASHBURN
technical facility, or that the appearance of
greater definiteness and sureness in the architec-
tural plates may be due, in part at least, to the
subjects. In the Norlands series one balks at the
somewhat fumbling rendering of water in The
Turn in the Creek, for instance, or at the appar-
ently meaningless foreground in Elms at Early
Sunrise. Or the juicy application of dry point in
Creek Meadow (the first plate) or Bog Creek seems
not entirely conscious of purpose, something like
aimless gestures in speech.
Yet in Martin Stream and The Androscoggin River
the water is good, treated with some of the sim-
plicity of Haden or Platt. In Wood Road or The
Androscoggin River at Strickland’s Ferry (simple
and direct in conception and composition) what is
elsewhere an apparent or real insufficiency of state-
ment resolves itself into a delightful example of
repression of detail, while in Road Near Tur-
ner, the summariness brings up recollections of
Pissarro or Raffaelli.
Throughout these Norlands plates one finds a
delicately expressed feeling for light and air.
Quivering, pulsating sunlight and atmosphere fill
scenes such as Elms at Early Sunrise; Meadow
near Martin’s Stream (a crisp impression of sunny
nature) among others. That feature takes us
from the contemplation of details in execution to
the consideration of a more fundamental charac-
teristic, the expression, in these Maine views, of
the charm of everyday nature. The old tree in
the corner of the lot, the brook winding through
meadow and beneath tangled undergrowth or
water plants, the roa,d through the woods, with
their ever-present note of mystery—these things
are set down with an absence of any human or
animal element. The resultant feeling of remote-
ness centers attention on the mood awakened by
nature alone. These Norlands dry points are
pure landscape art, a type occurring quite fre-
quently in our first noteworthy movement in
painter etching, about thirty years ago, but
strangely rare in the present revival. Mr. Wash-
burn’s interest in his native soil and the emotions
appealed to in its scenery, emphasize again the
importance in art of the combination of national
characteristics with a given personality, the im-
portant role of local influences.
Lin