Hayricks near Peekskill

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1878  

etching 

2 1/8 x 6 1/4" platemark 

pencil, lower right; initialed and numbered "No. 6" in plate, lower left corner 

not stated 

annotated in plate, lower right: "Peekskill Oct. 8 '78" 

W.6, illus. p. 75; JDS6 

antique laid paper 

proof 

 

BC001 

$400.00 

Smillie's sixth print features a farmstead with several large "hay ricks", a style of haystacking that allowed for run-off of rain and snow, and which sometimes involved thatching when there were no tarpaulins to cover them. This appears to be a spring or summer scene, with chickens in the foreground. Though it was only his sixth etching, Smillie's aptitude for the medium is evident in his sensitivity to light and shadow, and the detail found in the drystone wall and the leafing trees.