Mary Annie Sloane

Unique working proof impression with pencil additions and alterations by the artist. Mary Annie Sloane's personal working proof.

This exceptionally early, rough working proof shows Mary Annie Sloane developing the image and moving her subjects around on the plate. The children seen in the foreground, possibly relatives of the artist, are still being adjusted with additional pencil work and the middle girl can be seen to have been moved from the left of the path (where an etched ghost of her image remains) to the right, behind the foremost child. Much pencil work can be found strengthening the right-hand wall of the bridge. We have found no other impression of this particular etching and both the title of the work and location of the bridge depicted remain unknown.

On heavy wove 'plate' paper of the sort used to test the state of an etched plate, with full margins. Missing the upper left corner of the sheet (including the extreme upper left corner of the image), otherwise generally good original condition for a rough working proof of this nature.