Name/Title
Unloading the Catch | Pauline Winchester Inman | Wood Engraving | 1947Description
A wood engraving (3 1/2” x 3”) titled “Unloading the catch” by artist and printmaker, Pauline Inman. Dating to 1947, the engraving shows the unloading of a day’s catch of fishing from the stern of a boat tied unto a wharf along the eastern coast of Maine. Inman was born in Chicago in 1904 and graduated from Smith College in 1926. She studied wood engraving at Parson School of Design and Columbia University, both in New York City. “Unloading the catch” is part of a large collection of Inman’s wood engravings donated to the Tides Institute over a decade ago. An equally large collection of Inman’s original engraved wood block from which the prints were made from were placed with the Tides Institute as well. She and her husband first visited South Addison, Maine in 1929 and they continued to spend summers there for the next 30 to 40 years. From this summer base at South Addison, Inman was able to explore the surrounding eastern coast of Maine and all provided rich subject matter for her engravings. She would sketch and photograph during the summer and engrave the wood blocks in the winter at her home in Connecticut. She died in 1990.
Artist: Pauline Inman
Medium: Wood engraving
Old Accession Number: 670
Description
Pencil Signed. 1947.
Unloading the Catch, 1947
Wood Engraving
Fishermen unload fish from the stern of a wooden boat tied to a wharf with a single rope cutting across the shadow of the water. The heavy basket full of the day’s catch balances on the boat’s gunwale. An example of Inman’s interest in the activities of the wharf, this wood engraving captures the slumped, tired bodies of fishermen who have spent the day on the water and are now transporting their catches from the boat to the wharf decks one basket at a time with the desire to end the day with transactions. While the personal connection between the three figures might seem clear at first glance, this print has also been referred to as Selling the Catch, a title that sparks a reevaluation of the figures’ relationship.