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Muirhead Bone

1876 - 1953

The Convent of San Payo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain by Muirhead Bone
 

The Convent of San Payo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain   1929

  Original drypoint.
Signed in pencil.
Ref: Campbell Dodgson/Wright 434 xviii/xviii
S 398 x  280 mm; P & I  310 x 185 mm
SOLD
 
Original Muirhead Bone drypoint.

Excellent signed proof impression with bright contrast. One of only 12 impressions printed in the completed state of the plate – a total of 102 impressions were printed in 18 different states.

The architectural drypoints of Muirhead Bone are some of the greatest achievements of the British Etching Revival. The Convent of San Payo was begun in 1929, when Muirhead Bone’s position as one of the leading figures in British printmaking had already been established for many years. Muirhead Bone returned to this plate again and again over the next eight years, only achieving this perfected state of the image in 1937. A remarkable study of perspective and the interplay of light and shade, this striking architectural view represents the culmination of the artist’s many years of experience in mastering drypoint technique.

Spain was to provide the source for a number of Muirhead Bone’s greatest works, including the dramatic nocturne A Spanish Good Friday. As this plate of The Convent of San Payo displays so conspicuously, Muirhead Bone did not return with mere reportage, finding instead fascination in an architecture which he depicted from obtuse viewpoints with dramatic lighting. Far from being mundane, Muirhead Bone’s fine architectural drypoints are both eye catching and visually inventive.

On fine simile Japan paper with full margins and deckle edge. Mounted on a window sheet at extreme edges of sheet only. One minute foxing spot, otherwise very fine original condition.