Street in Blois, France America, 20th century

Street in Blois, France

1927

John Taylor Arms

(American, 1887–1953)

America, 20th century

etching

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1928.87

Courtesy of John Taylor Arms/© Suzanne Arms Hawkins

Catalogue raisonné: Fletcher, 204

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Arms was invited to Cleveland to lecture about the process of making an etching. He evangelically promoted printmaking in the many demonstration talks he gave beginning in 1920 and by participating in many other activities. He came to Cleveland in December 1927, and produced Street in Blois (Sketch) in front of an audience of 90 print club members. A good friend and fellow etcher, Samuel Chamberlain, described one of Arms’s demonstrations, “This is an amazing performance in which he follows all the steps of making a plate—grounding the copper surface, needling the picture (casually drawing with both hands), biting in acid and pulling a finished proof––and in one tense sitting, while carrying on a stentorian monologue and apparently not stopping for breath.”