Blue Mountains
1926 to 1950
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
hand-colored etching on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 21.3 x 19.7 cm (8 3/8 x 7 3/4 in.) sheet: 45.2 x 38 cm (17 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner
Accession Number
1991.116.132
Art Historical Context
Blue Mountains is a delicate hand-colored etching on wove paper by Provoslav Sovák, produced between 1926 and 1950. The plate measures just 21.3 by 19.7 cm, creating an intimate view that likely evokes a mountainous landscape through finely incised lines later tinted by hand. Etching, an intaglio process, uses acid to bite a drawing into a metal plate so that inked impressions capture subtle textures and atmospheric depth; the added watercolor or similar pigments make each print unique, here perhaps lending cool blues to distant ridges and skies. Prints of this kind were prized in the first h...