ETCHINGS & PRINTMAKERS C20TH

Etchings and Prints by 20th Century Printmakers

This category brings together original etchings, drypoints, aquatints, lithographs and prints by printmakers working in Britain, Europe and beyond during the 20th century, representing the tradition of fine printmaking at the height of its post-revival productivity. These artists — working in the aftermath of the great etching revival that had transformed attitudes to the print as an independent work of art from the 1850s onwards — produced etchings and prints of lasting quality that continue to attract collectors drawn by the combination of technical accomplishment, intimate scale and direct artistic expression that distinguishes the finest printmaking from reproductive work.

The etching revival of the mid-19th century had established the original etching — produced by the artist’s own hand on the copper plate, in limited editions, signed and often numbered — as a legitimate and highly desirable art object in its own right. This revolution in the status of the etching generated a culture of connoisseurship around original prints that persisted into the 20th century and sustained a community of dedicated printmakers whose work was collected by discriminating buyers on both sides of the Atlantic.

British etchers of the 20th century — among them Francis Seymour Haden, Frank Brangwyn, Muirhead Bone, D. Y. Cameron, James McBey and their contemporaries — produced etchings of architectural subjects, landscape, figure studies and urban scenes that represented the full range of the etching medium’s expressive possibilities. Their work was widely exhibited, collected by major institutions and purchased by private collectors who valued the intimacy and directness of the original print above the reproductive engraving and the photomechanical illustration that dominated popular visual culture.

European printmakers — working in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia — contributed their own national traditions to the 20th-century print, producing etchings and lithographs that reflected both the influence of the etching revival and the developing aesthetic priorities of modernism. These prints, produced alongside the better-documented national traditions of Australian printmaking, offer collectors a broader context for understanding the international character of fine printmaking in the early 20th century.

Original etchings and prints by 20th-century printmakers are collected for their quality as works of art, their connection to a significant tradition of original print-making, and the immediacy of their relationship to the artist’s hand and intention that distinguishes them from reproductive print media.