The Old Print Shop

The Life Line.

  • ARTIST: Winslow Homer

  • PUBLISHER: Published by C. Klachner "Copyright 1887, by C. Klachner, 17 East 17th St., New York."

  • MEDIUM: Etching,

    DATE: 1884.

  • EDITION SIZE: Printing size unknown. Plate mark 12 7/8 x 17 3/4" (32.7 x 45 cm).

  • DESCRIPTION: Inscribed within image "Copyright 1884 Winslow Homer." Remarque of an anchor between two dials, lower right. Publication line faintly visible lower center of the image. <BR><BR> "During the 1870s, after many disastrous shipwrecks, the public demand for higher safety standards on immigrant steamers was heard. A bolstering of the American Lifesaving Service, with brigade houses along the shore from Maine to Florida, and new lifesaving devices were introduced. One of these was the breeches buoy - a seat that carried people from the ship to shore rapidly. A trained brigade using a small cannon would fire a rope out to a ship in distress, establishing a life line that could carry passengers to safety." -Foster. <BR><BR> Winslow Homer was apprenticed to J. H. Bufford a lithographic publisher in Boston. However, as an artist, he never took to lithography. He worked as an illustrator for "Harper's Weekly" and other publications in the 1860s and 1870s. The first recorded etching by Homer is "Girl Posing in a Chair" which Goodrich dated around 1875. It was a successful etching but a bit crude in its execution. There are likely other images that the artist worked on but did not save, as the leap in quality and control from 1875 to this image in 1884 only happens by working on many plates and perfecting one's etching technique. In total Homer produced nine etchings, seven relating to the sea, one portrait, and his last etching "Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake." <br><br>

  • ADDITIONAL INFO: Unsigned. It is not known why the majority of this edition is unsigned. One impression in the Metropolitan Museum of Art printed in green ink is signed and numbered "106." Beautifully framed. <BR><BR> Provenance:<BR> Kennedy Galleries, New York<BR> Private Collector<BR> Baldwin Wallace College<BR> Private Collector<BR> The Old Print Shop, Inc.<BR>

  • CONDITION: Very good condition.

  • REFERENCE: Goodrich #91-92.