The Tired Woman |
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Original etching with drypoint.
Signed in pencil.
S 185 x 234 mm; P 122 x 160 mm; I 119 x 157 mm
SOLD
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Outstanding signed artist’s proof impression in the 4th state of the plate. An extremely strong early proof impression, prior to the only edition.
Born in Durham and trained at Coventry Schools of Art and at the Royal College of Art, Arthur Henderson Hall went on to win the Prix de Rome for engraving in 1931. Painter in watercolours, printmaker, book illustrator, and glass designer, Hall was elected a full member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1961 and a member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1970.
Like his fellow Rome scholars, Freeth and Cowern, Hall was too young to benefit from the commercial boom of the etching market and few of his prints were editioned. Further than this, he was not prolific as a printmaker. His outstanding figurative etchings rarely appear on the market today.
Hall’s etchings have stylistic similarities to those of his close contemporary Vernon Hill and his figures share the solid monumentality of his fellow Rome scholar William E.C. Morgan. However Hall’s works are distinguished by their remarkable interpretation of emotion in ordinary people. The Tired Woman is arguably the finest of Hall’s etched works, with its truly outstanding portrayal of an woman on hands and knees washing the floor. She hangs her head as she stops momentarily in her task, exhausted from her daily chores. This is a touching and understanding portrayal of an aspect of ordinary life so infrequently seen in original prints.
On pale cream laid paper with full margins and deckle edge. Remains of previous hinges at extreme edges of sheet, otherwise very fine original condition. |
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