Artwork Details
- Title
- A Quiet Canal
- Artist
- Date
- 1905
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- plate: 4 1⁄2 × 9 1⁄8 in. (11.3 × 23.2 cm) sheet: 7 3⁄4 × 12 5⁄8 in. (19.7 × 32.1 cm)
- Markings
- on lower left, etched in plate [in image]: EDRoth on lower left, in pencil: E.D. Roth The CANAL, VENICE on lower right, in pencil: 12--
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Katz
- Mediums Description
- etching on paper
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Cityscape — Italy — Venice
- Waterscape — canal
- Object Number
- 1971.386
Artwork Description
When Venice launched an international art exposition series in 1895, now called the Venice Biennale, organizers classified prints as a separate category of art. Fine etchings and aquatints appeared in specially designated "Bianco-Nero" (Black and White) sections of the fair during its early decades. Ernest David Roth exhibited two prints depicting Venice at the 1907 Biennale, burnishing his career and reputation. Like many printmakers of his generation, his etchings express appreciation for the innovative style and subject choices of James Whistler's Venetian series. Here Roth provides a crisp rendering of the gondola's reflections to convey the stillness of the water and the silence of Venice's less-frequented zones.
Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, 2021.