Narcissus

Leonard Edmondson

In his essay on Leonard Edmondson found on page 200 in A Spectrum of Innovation Color in American Printmaking 1890-1860, David Acton offered the following praise: “Technical virtuosity and originality are characteristic of Edmondson’s etched oeuvre. The artist has acknowledged that landscapes seen from an aerial view were the initial inspiration for his intaglio prints. Onto this topography, however, he superimposed a rich variety of forms and figures, which he perhaps developed from his experience as a calligrapher.... Edmondson’s prints always present rich and fascinating surfaces. Their great variety of textural effects, achieved by soft-ground etching and aquatint, are quite astonishing on close examination….By repetition and refinement, Edmondson developed his printing techniques to a virtuosic level. The majority of his color intaglios were made from one plate, with all the colors layered onto the plate and printed in a single operation….Between about 1955 and 1959, Edmondson experimented with the use of a second soft-ground or aquatint plate, with which he added an overall scrim of tone and pattern to the image.”