20. William Strang
(1859-1921)
Eel Fishing in a Cave by Torchlight

(click on image to print)
Strang, Eel Fishing in a Cave

Eel Fishing in a Cave by Torchlight

Etching, 1902, from Izaac Walton’s The Compleat Angler (plate 9), 150 x 112 mm, Binyon 428. Fine, strong impression on textured wove paper with good margins, unsigned as usual. Strang began what was a virtual Scottish takeover of the Etching Revival in Britain (Cameron, Bone, McBey). He studied with Legros, whose influence is apparent here and, like his teacher, was very much a multi-tasker: paintings, drawings, etchings, mezzotints, wood engravings, book illustrations. But Strang’s book illustrations were often original etchings, sometimes bound in the book, sometimes offered as a portfolio of images inspired by the book. With or without the book, Strang’s image here is a fascinating one, showing that most peculiar of fishing implements, the eel-stabber.