Name/Title
Building at the Wharf | Pauline Winchester Inman | Wood Engraving | 1936Description
Artist: Pauline Inman
Medium: Woodblock engraving
Circa: 1936
Old Accession Number: 1852
Description:
Signed bottom left.
Buildings at the Wharf (So. Addison, Maine), 1936
Wood Engraving
In Case:
Buildings at the Wharf (So. Addison, Maine), 1936
Wood Engraving Block
The bold and somewhat crude black lines of this print resemble a woodcut more than the delicate lines and high-level of detail she employed in her later wood engravings. However, the broad and ragged lines successfully replicate the weathered woodgrain and brittleness of the seaworn wharf architecture. Her composition and technique in this print reflects the medium she used, as she repeatedly carved the image of wood grain pattern into a wood block.
An early example of Inman’s incorporation of contemporary subjects into her wood engravings, this wood engraving depicts the architecture of the wharf in South Addison, one of Pauline Inman’s first Maine subjects. Inman’s brother, John H. Winchester, reported on Inman’s summers in Washington County, describing her interest in the wharf as follows:
They [Pauline and her husband Robert] toured the area far and wide, and were particularly absorbed by the going's on at the Wharf. Early on, the Wharf was administered by a wonderful old bearded character named Delbert Look. South Addison was replete with Looks and Crowleys. Lobstermen brought their lobsters to the Wharf, where they were weighed into cars by Vernon Crowley, and when the market was good in Boston, Delbert could sell a truckload. Polly made sketches and took photos from which to create her wood blocks.