Label Text:
Stokesay Castle, published under the auspices of the Miniature Print Society, presents a side view of the famed thirteenth-century fortified manor house located in Shropshire, England. Despite the small size and delicate rendering of the image, the strong light highlights the solidity of the structure.
John Taylor Arms was an influential figure in early twentieth-century American printmaking. In addition to publishing 425 of his own images during his forty-year career, he was also an advocate for the graphic arts through his teaching, lecturing, and writing. Arms is best known for his architectural images of medieval Europe and modern New York City. This is not surprising considering that his first training was as an architect. He began to experiment with printmaking after receiving an etching kit as a Christmas present from his wife, Dorothy, and eventually abandoned architecture for printmaking. Arms often used a sewing needle in his etchings, particularly for the miniatures he made throughout his career.
Because European travel during World War II was impossible, Arms devised the composition of Stokesay Castle from earlier sketches. Stokesay Castle itself had survived destruction during the English Civil War in the seventeenth century, so this image not only draws upon nostalgia for the past, but can also be seen as a hope for the preservation of English life and architecture during the 1940s.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1976.54.14 |
