PRINTS
Haden, Sir Francis Seymour
England (1818 - 1910)
Kensington Gardens, No. 2 (The Large Plate)
1860
Etching and drypoint on laid paper
7 x 10 9/16 in. (17.8 x 26.9 cm) sheet size; 8 x 5 in. (20.3 x 12.7 cm) plate mark size
Stimson Collection, gift of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
FA 77.95

Trees. Seymour Haden believed that trees were the most beautiful '...in the spring when you see not only the tender young leaves, but also the whole construction of branches and twigs.' In Kensington Garden No. 2 Haden used the white background of the paper as a light source, and created depth by contrasting the crisp etched line of the lit foliage with the fuzzy drypoint boughs of the shaded foreground. Remarking upon Haden's tree studies his friend Fredrick Keppel stated, 'In seeing the work of many other landscape artists we have the feeling that their trees were somehow stuck down into the ground; but Seymour Haden always makes his trees grow out of it.' -- Label copy for The Landscapes of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, Reed Gallery, April 6, 1991 to September 6, 1991.