46. Muirhead Bone
(1876-1953)
The Trevi Fountain, Rome

(click on image to print)
Bone, The Trevi Fountain, Rome

The Trevi Fountain, Rome

Drypoint, 1913-28, 404 x 265 mm., Dodgson 304 ix/xix, ex collection: Muirhead Bone personal collection. A fine, rich impression, one of only two in this state, on laid japan paper with full margins, signed in pencil and inscribed with a "B" in the upper right corner of the sheet, indicating an impression reserved by the artist for himself; a tiny depressed line in the surface. There were 87 impressions in all, in 19 states, as Bone worked on the plate, off and on, over a period of 15 years. He took a highly unorthodox observation point -- around the corner behind the fountain, which is not seen -- and focuses on the little church, the shops and the activity of the street, with cabs and bullock carts, demolition work at the left, and figures both clerical and secular, resting, talking or going about their business. Apart from the bullocks, it is much the same scene today. One of Bone's most famous prints.