Covent Garden, Grand Tier 1957 |
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Original etching.
Signed and inscribed in pencil.
Ref: Lowe 47
S 202 x 254 mm; P 174 x 205 mm; I 152 x 192 mm
£210
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Original Wilfred Fairclough etching.
Very good signed proof impression with strong, heavily inked line. A presentation proof aside from the normal edition, retained by the artist for his own personal use. Titled “Covent Garden” and inscribed by Wilfred Fairclough in pencil “To Gordon & Rita with good wishes 1969”.
Commissioned by the Print Collectors’ Club as their presentation plate for 1957, this unusual etched view inside the Covent Garden Opera House represents the beginning of the new and distinctly personal style which Wilfred Fairclough began to develop as his interest in original etching gradually rekindled at the end of the 1950’s. Up until now Wilfred Fairclough’s early period etchings had reflected the overriding influence of R.S. Austin, but here we can see Fairclough beginning to experiment with the sort of approach found in W.R. Sickert’s music hall interiors. Rather than concentrating upon either the interior architecture of the building or events on the stage, Wilfred Fairclough has chosen to study the effects of light throughout the audience, experimenting in an Impressionistic manner with how these can be rendered through the monochromatic etched line alone.
Wilfred Fairclough exhibited an impression of this etching at both the Royal Academy and at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers in 1949.
On cream laid paper with margins. Mat line in outer margins and evidence of previous mounting verso, otherwise generally very good original condition. |
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