John Crome (1768–1821)
"Colney", 1809, first published
in Mrs Crome’s 1834 (posthumous) edition of 60 impressions on chine collé.
Soft-ground etching and drypoint on wove
paper backed with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet) 22.4 × 29.8 cm; (plate) 16.5
× 23.5 cm
Inscribed on plate at lower right corner:
“Crome 1809” (“9” reversed).
State i (of i)
Theobald 1906 32 (Henry Studdy Theobald
1906, “Crome's Etchings”, London, Macmilian); Goldberg 1978 242 (Norman L Goldberg
1978, “John Crome the Elder”, New York, New York University Press).
The British Museum offers the following
description of this print:
“Man seen from behind standing against
posts and rails in the foreground; two loose wheels leaning against the paling
of cottage on r, rows of trees in the background on l.”
See also the description of this print
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Condition: richly inked and well-printed
crisp impression with generous margins in excellent/near pristine condition
(i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing), laid upon
a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.
I am selling this etching of utmost
rarity that is not only in museum-quality condition, but it is also the first
print that Crome executed, for AU$503 in total (currently US$364.20/EUR321.01/GBP279.91
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some
countries).
If you are interested in purchasing this
seminal print in the oeuvre of one of the first English artists to value
etching as a significant medium for portraying landscape, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.
This print has been sold
From
what I understand about the scene portrayed in this first etching that John
Crome executed, the location is in the village of Colney “on the borders of
Norwich”—according to the description of this print in William Weston Gallery’s
1993 exhibition catalogue (no. 6), “The Essence of English Landscape Etchings
by John Crome 1769–1821”. The same catalogue also offers the following insight
into Crome’s approach to rendering this landscape:
“…he
used a combination of etching and soft-ground etching, possibly inspired by his
admiration for Gainsborough’s use of mixed techniques in his prints. It was the
first of a group of etchings using soft[-]ground in which he was to achieve quite
extraordinarily beautiful effects of tone and line.” (cat.no. 25).
