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Overview
Andrew Fairbairn Affleck (1874-1935) was a Scottish artist who traveled extensively and lived in England, Belgium, Spain and finally Etaples, France, where he settled permanently in 1910. He specialised in architectural subjects, along with his fellow British etchers Hedley Fitton and Axel Haig. He is particularly known for his precise detail and use of light and shadow. In his etchings he would often use the plate tone: this involved leaving a thin film of ink on the plate before printing; creating tonal values of light and dark by clean wiping the areas he wished to be lighter, such as architectural columns.
This etching of the Hotel de Ville, Bruges (or Stadthuis/ Old City Hall) shows Affleck's architectural and tonal sensibilities towards this amazing late Gothic edifice, which is flanked by picturesque foreground trees. Burg Square is in the foreground. The other major quality of this print is its size (plate 483 x 550), perhaps five times that of near-contemporary architectural printmakers such as Lionel Lindsay and Louis Rosenberg. This invests both the etching itself - and the architecture - with a genuine grandeur.
See: Art of the Print, http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/affleck_andrew_interiorofchartrescathedral.htm
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art February 2018