Sir Francis Seymour Haden

Superb, early proof impression in Scneiderman’s 2nd state (of six). An outstanding example of this rare print with pronounced etched line.

This plate displays Francis Seymour Haden’s sole known use of aquatint. The dark shaded areas of aquatint occur only in this and the one preceding state. Francis Seymour Haden etched this plate from a photograph of a watercolour by J.M.W. Turner. The watercolour had already been used as the source for a mezzotint with etching in Turner’s great printed work the Liber Studiorum. It is clear from the experimental states through which F.S.Haden’s plate progressed that Haden intended to follow the example of the Liber Studiorum plate.

Like the underlying etching of the Liber Studiorum plate, the lines of the present work are extremely deeply bitten, in a manner which Francis Seymour Haden did not use again until returning to another Turner subject, Calais Pier, many years later. It seems that in the first two states of Near the Grande Chartreuse, Haden visualised using aquatint rather than mezzotint to achieve the tonal qualities of the image. However, he went on to add a mezzotint ground across the entire surface of the plate in an attempt to follow the exact pattern of the Liber Studiorum. Haden’s mezzotint was not successful and the plate was abandoned. This plate was never printed in any form of published edition and impressions in all states are extremely rare.

Only one single impression from this plate was listed as available at the time Gutekunst released his catalogue of Francis Seymour Haden’s entire remaining stock in July 1911. The extreme rarity of this print is confirmed by its almost total absence from recorded sales over the past century.

(Harrington’s cataloguing of this plate is now universally acknowledged to be inaccurate.)

On heavy cream wove paper, watermarked J Whatman 1871, with full margins and deckle-edge. Generally very good original condition.