DOI Heft:
No. 348 (March 1922)
DOI Artikel:Allhusen, E. L.: George Elbert Burr's etchings of the desert
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21395#0160
GEORGE ELBERT BURR'S ETCHINGS OF THE DESERT
"SANTA CATALINA MTS.—TUC-
SON, ARIZONA.” DRY-POINT
BY GEORGE ELBERT BURR
ingly as they begin ; in Australia they are
generally broken up by undergrowth and
scrub. Solitude and desolation could not
be better expressed than in this little plate
by Mr. Burr. 00000
A Mirage, a dry-point of slightly larger
dimensions, is quite as wonderful. Mr.
Burr has transferred the natural miracle to
the copper, and the print has to be seen to
be believed. The effect is brought about
by the delicatest of vertical touches in the
middle distance to right and left; shading
backwards, through the untouched plate,
to the faint, almost imperceptible line of
mountains ; the whole giving to the print
the vraie verite of a mirage, which one
would not have thought possible to express
in black and white. 0000
Dawn in the land of the Buttes, another
small plate, is remarkable, in contrast to
A Mirage for its complete lack of artifice.
The effect of the clear morning air, before
sunrise, is obtained by a very light biting
of the plate ; there is no artistic trickery of
any sort; it is a pure etching wiped clean,
and the more effective for its simplicity.
Not that Mr. Burr despises any legitimate
means which expert printing may give.
Like all born etchers, he is his own printer,
and there is nothing in the technique of
retroussage and effective wiping which he
does not know. Evening Clouds, one of the
larger plates in the “ Desert Set," is a com-
bination of soft ground etching and aqua-
tint, and the cloud effect is almost entirely
dependent upon the printing. It was Mr.
Walter Sickert, I believe, who said that the
ideal etching was one you could send, like a
visiting card plate, to a commercial printer
to be printed. I should not like to entrust
Mr. Burr’s plates to a commercial printer,
and I have yet to learn that Mr. Sickert
does so with his own plates. a a
Palm Canyon is a simple and decorative
attempt in pure dry-point; while Twilight,
Laguna, New Mexico is an aquatint, deeply
printed, and appears to represent the same
scene as that depicted in a mezzotint
Arizona Clouds, but the former shows the
desert vanishing before advancing night,
143
"SANTA CATALINA MTS.—TUC-
SON, ARIZONA.” DRY-POINT
BY GEORGE ELBERT BURR
ingly as they begin ; in Australia they are
generally broken up by undergrowth and
scrub. Solitude and desolation could not
be better expressed than in this little plate
by Mr. Burr. 00000
A Mirage, a dry-point of slightly larger
dimensions, is quite as wonderful. Mr.
Burr has transferred the natural miracle to
the copper, and the print has to be seen to
be believed. The effect is brought about
by the delicatest of vertical touches in the
middle distance to right and left; shading
backwards, through the untouched plate,
to the faint, almost imperceptible line of
mountains ; the whole giving to the print
the vraie verite of a mirage, which one
would not have thought possible to express
in black and white. 0000
Dawn in the land of the Buttes, another
small plate, is remarkable, in contrast to
A Mirage for its complete lack of artifice.
The effect of the clear morning air, before
sunrise, is obtained by a very light biting
of the plate ; there is no artistic trickery of
any sort; it is a pure etching wiped clean,
and the more effective for its simplicity.
Not that Mr. Burr despises any legitimate
means which expert printing may give.
Like all born etchers, he is his own printer,
and there is nothing in the technique of
retroussage and effective wiping which he
does not know. Evening Clouds, one of the
larger plates in the “ Desert Set," is a com-
bination of soft ground etching and aqua-
tint, and the cloud effect is almost entirely
dependent upon the printing. It was Mr.
Walter Sickert, I believe, who said that the
ideal etching was one you could send, like a
visiting card plate, to a commercial printer
to be printed. I should not like to entrust
Mr. Burr’s plates to a commercial printer,
and I have yet to learn that Mr. Sickert
does so with his own plates. a a
Palm Canyon is a simple and decorative
attempt in pure dry-point; while Twilight,
Laguna, New Mexico is an aquatint, deeply
printed, and appears to represent the same
scene as that depicted in a mezzotint
Arizona Clouds, but the former shows the
desert vanishing before advancing night,
143