27. Sir Frank Short (1857-1945)
after J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851)

Pan and Syrinx

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Pan and Syrinx

Pan and Syrinx

Etching with pencil additions, 1889, 228 x 301 mm., Hardie 24 etched proof i/iii. Fine impression in black on thick wove paper with small but full margins, annotated by Short in ink “unfinished proof”; verso, pencil sketches and smears of wash. This is a unique touched proof of the first etched state, before mezzotint, in which the composition is extended downward. This first plate of the subject (Short did a second) was based on a trial proof etching from Turner’s time which Short came to believe was not by Turner himself. The pencil additions here have presumably been made from Turner’s original drawing, which Short consulted after doing the initial etching. The only other known impression of this state is in the British Museum (but without pencil additions) and even Short himself had forgotten the existence of this one (a note in Hardie’s catalog quotes Short as remarking that the BM impression “was the only proof, as far as I know, that got out”). The work was later mezzotinted but never published. A major rarity.