Object Details
graphic artist
Gifford, Robert Swain
maker
Gifford, Robert Swain
Description
Robert Swain Gifford’s etching Coal Pockets at New Bedford shows a grimy Massachusetts dock scene with a coal storage facility and a chimney belching smoke. Gifford pictured the southeastern Massachusetts coast, where he had lived as a boy, in many of his prints. As Sylvester R. Koehler noted in the American Art Review, which published the print in 1880, “The artist lifts the commonplace into the ideal, and teaches us to see beauty where our unguided eyes would have failed to discover it.” The print continued to be popular and was republished several times. In later impressions like this one, the date “-79’’ at bottom right has almost disappeared. Probably the publishers did not want the print to seem out of date.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
date made
1879
ID Number
GA.14871.02
catalog number
14871.02
accession number
94830
Object Name
print
Other Terms
print; Intaglio; Etching
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
ink (overall material)
Measurements
image: 17.5 cm x 12.5 cm; 6 7/8 in x 4 15/16 in
plate: 19 cm x 13.5 cm; 7 1/2 in x 5 5/16 in
sheet: 30.5 cm x 23.5 cm; 12 in x 9 1/4 in
See more items in
Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
Ferris Collection
Communications
Art
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_782173