Rocamadour

 

John Taylor Arms

  1887 - 1953 (biography)

1926 in plate - printed in 1927 

etching in a brown-black ink. 

13 3/4 x 9 5/8" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

proof from the second state, aside from published edtion of 50. 

dated after the signature; inscribed in lower left: "Second State" 

Fletcher 186 ii/ii; French Church series #10 

ivory laid F J Head & Co watermarked 

ii/ii 

artist 

21557 

SOLD

This impression is a proof that is not editioned, annotated by the artist "Second State" and dated "1927". It is from the collection of California etcher and Arms friend John W. Winkler and was selected personally by Arms to give to Winkler. Like Whistler Arms tended to work on his plates in series. "Rocamadour" is the tenth of fifty-five etchings done between 1924 and 1952 he called his "French Church Series". He discusses this image and church in his book 'Churches of France' (Macmillan, 1929) on pages 103 to 106, with an illustration of the print. Rocamadour is a clifftop village in south central France. According to legend, Rocamadour was the home of an early Christian hermit named Zaccheus of Jericho. Legend also states that he had conversed with Jesus and his wife was St. Veronica, who wiped the face of Jesus on his accent to Calvary. After the death of Zaccheus, Rocamadour became a place of pilgrimage. The Shrine of Our Lady of Rocamadour is a complex of religious structures perched high atop a rocky plateau overlooking the Alzou Valley. This religious site receives 1.5 million visitors each year.