Old St. Etienne
Sir David Young Cameron (1865-1945), Old St. Etienne, etching and drypoint, 1907, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Rinder 400. In very good condition, on old cream wove paper, with small margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 16 7/8 x 9, the sheet 19 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches. Archival storage with window mat.
Provenance: estate of Elizabeth Hutton Tupson, Lady Cameron.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brown ink with a veil of plate tone.
Cameron was, of course, one of the greatest of the British Etchers, and Old St. Etienne is one of the finest of his several church-front portraits.
In 1929 Cameron’s work sold at record prices for British prints; his The Five Sisters, York Minster sold for $3200 in August 1929, perhaps a higher price than any British print even to this day. Cameron’s star fell with the Depression. Robin Garton, always an insightful observer, noted in the early 1990’s that Cameron was “an artist of quite remarkable qualities and it would be hard to find a more worthwhile artist who is more out of fashion.” Today there are stirrings of interest in artists whose reputations have withstood the fashions of recent art movements, and Cameron’s time may be – again – at hand. In any case, this is a splendid print.