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.”

(https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1519565&partId=1&searchText=john+Crome+colney&page=1)

See also the description of this print at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/716581?searchField=All&sortBy=relevance&ft=colney&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=1

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).