Sir Francis (Frank) Job Short RA, PRE (English)
1857 – 1947
A South Coast Road, Pegwell Bay, 1903, etching, pencil signed l/l, 6″ x 10.5″ plate, 11.5″ x 18″ sheet, 13″ x 17.75″ frame
Estimate: $450. Offers invited.
Please email an offer to purchase or a request for more information to thistlefineart.info@gmail.com.
Excellent condition; recently rematted with archival materials and mounted in a quality custom frame. This etching was cited by Strange 249; Hardie 323, i/II. A fine impression printed on cream laid paper and illustrated in The Studio 38 (1906): 55. There was at least one other state and this is believed to be the final state. Hardie describes the etching subject as a location in the Isle of Thanet, Kent – “The coast road, with telegraph poles, is on the right; a covered wagon stands outside an inn overshadowed by trees; white cliffs edge the bay on the left.” No mention is made of what could be a ship’s chest on the sands in the left quadrant of another state. Indeed, the drawing of the chest doesn’t appear to have been completed in the other version of this etching.
A painter and engraver, Frank Short was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire. He abandoned his early career as an engineer for art, which he studied at South Kensington and Westminster School of Art. He won gold medals for engraving at the Paris Salon in 1889 and 1900. In 1891 he was appointed Director of Engraving at the Royal College of Art; later becoming Professor in 1913. Short became Treasurer of the Royal Academy (1919-32) as well as Master of the Art Workers Guild. He was knighted in 1911 for his services. Short retired from the Royal College in 1924. He succeeded Sir Francis Haden and became President of the Royal Society of Etchers in 1910 to 1938.
Sir Frank Short had a seminal influence on British print making and might be considered the father of the British etching boom, for he taught many of the next two generations of printmakers writing extensive books on the method of etching, engraving and mezzotints. Short is also well known for reviving mezzotint engraving in Britain as an original creative medium. At Ruskin’s suggestion, Short embarked on completing Turner’s Liber Studiorum. He later adapted the medium to contemporary country and urban landscape scenes, exploiting its tonal qualities, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Painters, Royal Society of British Painters, and the Royal Society of British Painters-Etchers.
Also by this artist:
Credit: Wikipedia
(Credit: New England Art Exchange )
Credit – National Gallery of Canada
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