Happy Anniversary

Art Historical Context

**Happy Anniversary** is a soft-ground etching by Joan Rosenwald Scott, created sometime between 1901 and 1925. This intimate print belongs to the Rosenwald Collection at the National Gallery of Art, a renowned holding of works on paper that underscores the museum’s strength in graphic arts from this era. Soft-ground etching is a distinctive printmaking process in which a pliable, waxy ground is applied to the plate. Artists can then press fabrics, papers, or other materials into it to transfer textures, producing softer, more atmospheric lines and patterns than traditional hard-ground etchin...