45. John Taylor Arms
(1887-1953)
Stokesay Castle

(click on image to print)
Arms, Stokesay Castle

Stokesay Castle

Etching, 1942, 59 x 76 mm., Fletcher 369 ii/ii. Very fine impression on wove paper with good margins, signed and dated in pencil and possibly one of the eleven proofs before the edition of 258. Arms, through his etchings, his writings and his lectures and demonstrations, was a highly important figure in the American Etching Revival. Apart from some notable exceptions, his etchings concerned themselves with architecture and, despite demonstrating a keen sense of light, were obsessive about detail – down to the last brick. He was, in essence, and even in his larger plates, a miniaturist -- and the master of probably the tiniest full pencil signature in the history of art He traveled widely and etched churches, cathedrals, towns and villages in England, France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere, as well as American and Mexican scenes, airplanes, battleships, birds, flowers and old sailing vessels. But what comes out of most of these generally highly-detailed studies is less a sense of place than a representation of something -- a building or group of buildings, a ship, even a landscape -- in isolation from its national context. Again, with some notable exceptions. This one is not an exception but it is a lovely miniature print, etched with the greatest delicacy and mastery.

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