In the last quarter of the 19^th Century there was an explosion of activity in the graphic arts among American artists - especially in New York City.  During the 1870's numerous groups, including The Salmagundi Sketch Club and Art Students League of New York, sprang up seemingly overnight with early activities centered on member sketch classes of the figure.  At around the same time the New York Etching Club was formed, though its members focused on landscape imagery atypical in oil painting circles of the day. 

During their heyday, the New York Etching Club published many highly regarded collections of intaglio prints as did various independent publishers. But nowhere in the record of that period is there a portfolio of etchings of the human figure executed before the live model.

On the morning of July 10, 2004 eight artist-printmakers assembled at the studio of VanDeb Editions - a full service professional etching studio - to create "The Intaglio Figure" portfolio of prints.  Each of the artists came prepared with their own 17"h x 12"w etching plate. 

Prior to arrival at the studio the artists had traced the outline of their plate onto pages of a newsprint pad so that during the warm up sketching sessions they could work in these 17" x 12" 'boxes'.  The object was to solve compositional issues for the etching sketch, so that during the final drawing directly on the plate - the format and approach would be highly developed.

After the artists completed their initial life drawing on the plate - each had a chance to do their initial acid bite at the studio, insuring nothing happened to the original image, as several did.  Afterwards, the artists developed the plate in any way they wished back in their own studios.

The portfolio has become part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The Intaglio Figure portfolio of 8 prints was limited to a published edition of only 15 copies, and 3 remain for sale to the public. To view the image thumbnails, click here. To view larger images with descriptions of their techniques, click here.