Twixt dawn and day

The printmaker and painter Sir Frank Short (1857-1945) originally trained as an engineer but left this line of work to pursue a career as an artist. He attended evening classes at Stourbridge School of Art before moving to London. In London he studied at South Kensington and Westminster Schools of Art, mastering the techniques of mezzotint, aquatint and etching.

Short exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1885 and 1904. He won two gold medals for engraving at the Paris Salon in 1889 and 1900. Soon after this he became a teacher of etching and was professor of engraving at the Royal College of Art between 1913 and 1924. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (now the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers) in 1885, becoming its President between 1910 and 1938. Short was Master of the Art Workers' Guild in 1901 and an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1906, where he became Treasurer in 1919 until 1932. He was knighted in 1911 and was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1917.

Short lived and worked in London and Sussex for most of his life. He was considered one of the leading figures in the field of etching and engraving in the early 20th century, responsible for reviving interest in mezzotint and aquatint techniques, the latter applying perfectly to this relatively late print, Twixt dawn and day.

Although Short is not considered a hero of modern art, his observations of the changing light conditions on the basic rural subject matter of hayricks in fields compare in subtlety to those of Claude Monet in painting. Another interesting comparison is with the British Impressionist, near contemporary and friend of Short, also represented in Te Papa's collection, George Clausen.

The difference between the first and second states of this print lies only in the extension of the white streak in the sky to the left of the hayrick, indicating that Te Papa's impression is second state. Short's aquatint technique was far more complicated, and produced far subtler results, than the basic method developed in the 18th century. He often used a sandpaper ground to cover the whole plate, rather than several aquatint grounds of differing grain. He probably used multiple bitings. And most of his delicate effects were produced by burnishing, as in mezzotint, but with a quite different look. The aquatints are generally lighter in appearance, more 'daytime' prints, and Short played with the lighter shades of grey to produce myriad tiny tonal variations hardly seen in aquatint before. There are no lines on this plate, only shifting tones.

See: C. & J. Goodfriend, 'Drawings and Prints: Sir Frank Short...', http://www.drawingsandprints.com/CurrentExhibition/detail.cfm?ExhibitionID=26&Exhibition=33

Wikipedia, 'Frank Short', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Short

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   May 2018