The Unfinished Print - Hardcover

Peter Parshall is curator of old-master prints at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Stacey Sell is assistant curator of old-master drawings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

To accompany a current exhibition at Washington, DC's National Gallery of Art, this collection of essays examines the elusive notion of completeness in the art of printmaking. Parshall, Stacey Sell, and Judith Brody, curators of prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art, consider the ability of a printmaker to produce numerous versions of the same work. The emphasis is largely on etching and engraving and on pre-20th-century printmaking. The authors provide examples of how prints were circulated in their preliminary stages and how different variations of the same work were released as the original printing plate was reworked. While a major part of the book is dedicated to the analysis of Rembrandt's prints, there are also some discussions of later artists, including Piranesi, Degas, and Jacques Villon. The book is generally thoughtful, well documented, and nicely illustrated; however, the reader may find the writing on Degas, Cassatt, and Gauguin to be too brief when compared with the attention given to other important artists. Still, this unique and thought-provoking work is recommended for academic, art school, and museum libraries. Eric Linderman, East Cleveland P.L., OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.