First Impressions: Nineteenth Century American Master Prints

First Impressions features over 70 works by some of the leading “painter-etchers” of the 1880s including Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran, William Merritt Chase, Henry Farrer, Stephen Parrish, James D. and George H. Smillie, John Henry Twachtman, and Thomas Waterman Wood. These artists sought to imbue the traditionally rigid line of engraving with the freedom and spontaneity they expressed in their painting.

The book includes some of the etching revival’s most beautiful images, notably the atmospheric landscapes of Long Island’s East End. Many of the prints in the Parrish’s collection are bon à tirer, that is, the first impression that was fully acceptable to the artist and the printer. The quality of these works evokes the moment of complete artistic collaboration shared by artist and printer, when the ‘master’ print was pulled from the press.