31. Sir Francis Seymour Haden
(1818-1910)

A By-Road in Tipperary

(click on image to print)
Haden, A By-Road in Tipperary

A By-Road in Tipperary

Etching and drypoint, 1860, 190 x 288 mm., Harrington 30 ii/ii, Schneiderman 30 v/vi. Very fine impression on thin, brownish laid paper with large margins. It is, arguably perhaps, Haden’s greatest etching and certainly one of his rarest. The image ornaments the jacket of Schneiderman’s catalog, taking precedence over Sunset in Ireland, Shere Mill Pond, and other well known subjects. Haden’s true forte as a draughtsman was his understanding of and ability to delineate tree branching, not the commonest accomplishment, and one that combines here with superb rendering of light and shade to produce a scene of poetic intensity. No impression of the print is recorded at auction in the last thirty years, but there is a reduced size, photo-engraved reproduction of it that has sometimes been falsely offered as an original.