Approaching New York No. 2

Self-taught as an artist, James McBey (1883-1959) was born in Newburgh near Aberdeen. He worked as a bank clerk from the age of fifteen, learning about art from books. After reading about etching, he became interested in printmaking, producing his first prints using a domestic mangle and building his own printing press. An admirer of Rembrandt's prints, McBey launched his artistic career in 1910 by travelling to the Netherlands. He returned to live in London before working in Egypt as an Official War Artist in 1917. McBey reached the peak of his popularity as an etcher in the 1920s, but when the print market collapsed due to the Depression, he mainly produced portraits on commission. McBey didn't associate himself with artistic movements, but saw himself as a traditional, skilled craftsman. Following his marriage in 1931, McBey lived mostly in Morocco, and during World War Two, the United States. He died in Tangier, Morocco, in 1959.

McBey remains one of Scotland's - and Britain's - greatest printmakers, who intelligently continued in the vein of James McNeill Whistler, and who along with his older contemporaries, William Strang, Muirhead Bone and particularly D.Y. Cameron, constituted an extraordinary body of Scottish etchers. By being essentially self-taught, McBey is arguably the most remarkable of them all.

This etching represents the 1934 reworking of an original plate dated 22 October 1929, hence the 'No. 2' subtitle. On 22 October, McBey was the darling of the etching revival, then enjoying what proved to be its final fling. Two days later, 'Black Thursday' occurred, wiping 11% off share prices, rapidly followed by 'Black Monday' and 'Black Tuesday' at the end of the month, causing a permanent fall till c. 1932, and the market didn't fully recover to its previous highs till 1954. The market for etchings and drypoints collapsed in tandem, though McBey's reputation still remained high for several years yet. He little suspected what he was sailing into, on board the ocean-liner Majestic, when the original sketches for this print were made. Manhattan's spectacular skyline, the symbol of a booming capitalist America, can be discerned in the distance.

See:

Aberystwyth University Artist Collections, 'James McBey', https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/art/gallery-museum/collections/artist-collections/mcbeyjames/

National Galleries Scotland, https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/james-mcbey

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   June 2018