Widow
1944
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
engraving in black on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 16.8 x 12 cm (6 5/8 x 4 3/4 in.) sheet: 24.7 x 19.2 cm (9 3/4 x 7 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift from Clare Calder and her sister Rachel Austin
Accession Number
2012.5.28
Art Historical Context
Robert Austin's *Widow* (1944) is a poignant engraving on laid paper, capturing the quiet grief of loss amid World War II. Created during the height of the conflict, when countless families mourned fallen soldiers, this intimate print measures just 16.8 x 12 cm on the plate, close contemplation. Austin, a distinguished British engraver Royal Academician (1895–1973), was renowned for his meticulous line work in the tradition of the early 20th-century print, blending technical precision with emotional depth. The medium of engraving—incising fine lines into a metal plate, inking them, and pressi...
About the Artist
Robert Austin
Robert Sargent Austin RA PPRWS PPRE (1895–1973) was a preeminent British engraver, draughtsman, illustrator, and painter, born in Leicester, England, where his prodigious talent emerged early—at just eight years old, he exhibited with the Royal Drawing Society.) He trained first at the Leicester Municipal School of Art from 1909 to 1913, then at the Royal College of Art from 1914–1916 and 1919–192...