Artist: Sir Francis Seymour Haden (English, 1818-1910)
Medium: Antique copper plate etching with drypoint on watermarked laid paper.
Signature: Signed in the plate, lower left.
Dimensions: Plate size 5 7/16 x 8 7/16 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 15 x 18 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Haden’s own plates were very individual. He preferred to work directly onto the plate in front of the subject.Malcolm Salaman wrote of Haden drawing from nature “with that breadth, freedom, and spontaneity of effect, which, while suggesting a sketch, represented a true etcher’s drawing”. Even when working from a picture by another artist 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.