Evening Glow by William Seltzer Rice

Evening Glow by William Seltzer Rice

Evening Glow

William Seltzer Rice

Title

Evening Glow

 
Artist
Year
c. 1915  
Technique
color woodcut 
Image Size
4 5/8 x 3 5/8" image 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
under 15, each impression varies 
Annotations
pencil titled; lime green oak tree chop in lower right. 
Reference
 
Paper
laid Japanese 
State
unique proof 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
21279 
Price
SOLD
Description

"Evening Glow" is a beautiful Arts & Crafts color woodcut in which each pictorial element is outlined in black as the sky turns gold at sunset. A tall eucalyptus tree is silhouetted against houses illuminated by electric lights.

In some of his early woodcuts Rice would add an identifying "chop", carved from a separate block, a technique many Japanese woodcut artists used as signature seals as well as some western printmakers, such as Gustave Baumann with his hand in heart chop. Rice printed the chop, a stylized California oak tree, in a bright green in the lower right margin.

William S. Rice hand painted his inks onto the blocks rather than applying them with a roller resulting in the impression being very painterly, with brush strokes. Each impression varies in color, more like "monoprints" which are created from the same matrix but vary in color from print to print. Rice's editions were very small and not officially numbered, he once printed 15 and vowed never to do that again.