From My Studio Door (a.k.a. From My Study Door)

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1883  

etching 

9 3/8" x 7 3/4" plate mark 

unsigned 

proof 

Op.29 incised into plate in lower left; and incised into the plate in the upper left "From my study door / etcing from nature/ Montrose sep. '83" 

Witthoff 32, Smillie 29 

fine cream laid 

 

 

BC115 

SOLD

What an artist sees from their studio windows and doorways no doubt influences their work, and James David Smillie is certainly known for his carefully rendered, lush portrayals of rural landscapes, much like what he has depicted in “From My Studio Door.” A passage through a wood is composed almost as a portal into another world. What lies beyond the shadowed trees is an intriguing mystery.

Of note in this piece is how Smillie has rendered the background tone, employing soft, layered strokes of gray as from a watercolor brush, lending a dappled effect to the image. In the upper left, beneath his signature, he’s written simply “Etched from nature.” Brucia Witthoft's catalogue raisonné states: "...'From My Studio Door' was drawn first on paper, from a spot near the privy outside Smillie's Montrose house."