Lessing J. Rosenwald
1930
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
etching
Dimensions
sheet: 35.3 × 24 cm (13 7/8 × 9 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1980.45.983
Art Historical Context
This 1930 etching by Scottish artist James McBey captures Lessing J. Rosenwald, the prominent American collector and philanthropist whose extraordinary gift of prints forms the core of the National Gallery of Art’s graphic arts holdings. Created during the height of McBey’s career, the portrait reflects the close relationship between artist and subject, as Rosenwald actively supported contemporary printmakers while assembling one of the finest private collections of works on paper in the United States. Etching, the medium McBey employed with great mastery, involves drawing through a wax groun...
About the Artist
James McBey
James McBey (1883–1959) was a Scottish artist renowned for his etchings and paintings, emerging from humble beginnings in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, as the illegitimate son of a blacksmith's daughter. Largely self-taught, he left school at fifteen to work as a bank clerk in Aberdeen, where he devoured art books from the public library and attended evening classes at Gray's School of Art to hone his ...