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Overview
The British artist Stanley Anderson (1884-1966) was responsible for reviving line engraving as a mode of original graphic expression, when it had become all but obsolete. He learned the process as an apprentice to a heraldic engraver, but initially achieved fame as an etcher and drypointist in the renaissance of British etching during and after World War I. In 1929 he turned his skills to engraving on a copper plate, and he will chiefly be remembered for his engravings of English rural crafts dating from 1932, for which he was made CBE in 1951. These are well represented in Te Papa's collection. His subjects also included drypoints of continental market scenes, as here, etchings of down and outs in 1920s London, and views of urban construction and demolition sites. In 1938 Anderson represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.
In the early inter-war years Anderson's work was mainly composed of portraits, landscapes and street scenes. From the 1920s he began to add social comment and ironic commentary, which increased in the 1930s as his work became more mature and began to reflect his growing disillusionment with modern life. This is not evident in this drypoint, which is a charming - and to contemporary eyes nostalgic - slice of life
In it, Anderson depicts an unremarkable topographical scene, the Quai (Quay) de Montebello in Paris's 5th arrondisement, a view across a road or square where two large gypsy caravans are established in front of several hotels, with trucks to the right. Two men are standing at open book-sellers' stands at right, by the stone wall of the quay.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Anderson_(artist)
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art February 2018