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Causeway From Marblehead Neck To Mainland by James David Smillie

Causeway From Marblehead Neck To Mainland by James David Smillie

Causeway From Marblehead Neck To Mainland

James David Smillie

Title

Causeway From Marblehead Neck To Mainland

 
Artist

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)
Year
1883  
Technique
etching 
Image Size
6 x 12" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right; signed in plate, lower left image 
Edition Size
artist's proof, not formally editioned 
Annotations
in pencil, lower left margin: "J.D.S. imp"; in plate, lower left: "N.Y." and "1883" and "Op. 26" in lower right 
Reference
JDS26; Witthoft 29 
Paper
fine ivory laid 
State
proof 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
BC125 
Price
SOLD
Description

James David Smillie did two images in Marblehead, Massachusetts of the Marblehead Neck Causeway, a peninsula that extends into Massachusetts Bay. He did a number of sketches and watercolors in the summer of 1882 and began creating two etchings of the scene at his studio in Montrose, Pennsylvania in 1883, this, also known as "Causeway - Marblehead Neck" and "A Bit on Marblehead Neck."

According to Brucia Whitthoft in her raisonné of Smillie's etchings: "The two Marblehead etchings were worked on together in Sprint and Summer 1883. Smillie showed proofs of this one to Lyons, the reporter for the Montrose Democrat (newspaper), on August 7.

The composition repeats a watercolor shown at the American Watercolor Society exhibit in February, 1883. JDS himself made the pen sketch for the catalogue on January 10."

The other Marblehead image "A Bit on Marblehead Neck" was done in 2 states and published by Koehler in 'Original Etchings by American Artists' in 1883. This image does not appear to have been printed in anything but proofs. This proof is from Smillie's own collection.