
Etching. A view of public parkland, with a palm tree at left, three small trees at the lower right, and the bust of a figure, atop a pillar, at the centre right. On the skyline are several tall nineteenth-century buildings. The sky is filled with summarily etched clouds and other, scribbled markings.
Drypoint accents have been added throughout the plate. The palm’s shadow has been extended in drypoint to the area immediately in front of the three small trees at right. The far outline of the path has been strengthened and edged with oblique strokes; etched strokes have been added in the near foreground and around the three small trees.
- Catalogue Number
- E.014
- Title and Date
- Public building
1989–90
- Description of Featured Image
- A view of public parkland, with a palm tree at left, three small trees at the lower right, and the bust of a figure, atop a pillar, at the centre right. On the skyline are several tall nineteenth-century buildings. The sky is filled with dark clouds.
- Where Made
- Dunmoochin, Cottles Bridge
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Etching and drypoint on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: Fabriano paper with watermark: ‘CMF’ with star above, within a circle/oval; Arches watercolour paper. Other papers mentioned in notes on this work in Amor’s intaglio record books: Stonehenge paper.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 223 x 195 mm
Matrix size: 225 x 199 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.10 (1989)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio, Cottles Bridge.
- Summary Edition Information
- Three states. Nominal edition of ten, 1990, but, according to Amor’s intaglio record books, only two impressions were printed and numbered.
- Exhibitions
- Niagara Galleries 1990: Niagara Galleries, Richmond (Melbourne), Rick Amor, opened 19 June 1990 [closing date not recorded], no. 22, ed. 1/10.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: four state impressions, numbered 1 through 4, all dated 1989.
- Comment
The subject of this drypoint is a view of Melbourne’s Old Treasury Building (built 1858–62) and the adjacent public gardens. The print follows the artist’s small sketchbook drawing of this subject.
The clouds hanging low in the sky are roughly sketched in the first state of E.014 but were gradually transformed, and by the third and final state the sky is darkly stormy. Amor’s intensive use of drypoint in the third state, particularly in the elongation of the shadow of the palm so that it echoes the oblique cloud formation, completed the expressive and tonal shaping of the image.
- Keywords
- Gardens, Melbourne
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/public-building/
Record last updated 15/02/2021