[F]or a busy surgeon first to achieve eminence in his own exacting profession, and then, comparatively late in life, to take up painter-etching, the most difficult of all the graphic arts, and in it to produce work which ranks him throughout Europe and America as the greatest living landscape-etcher, is only another proof that genius is not tied down by ordinary limitations; that where it exists it will assert itself triumphantly; and that the artist, like the poet, is "born, not made." [Keppel 20].
IN the record of the Revival of Etching, as in England we have known and seen it, Seymour Haden's ought certainly to be the most conspicuous name. His work may be equal to Whistler's, though on different lines — or it may be unequal to Whistler's. That is not the whole of the matter. The work is in any case considerable and important; individual, interesting, learned, spirited, valuable. Furthermore, it is of such a nature that without the least truckling to popularity upon the part of the artist, either in the conception or execution of his plates, Haden's work made to the English public a much prompter and more general appeal than did the work of his immortal kinsman. [Wedmore 137].
The reception of Mr. Haden's etchings, and especially the intelligent and abundant criticism which hailed them in the periodical press, was the dawn of a greater enlightenment. [Hamerton 28]
Biographical Material
Works
- Portrait of F. S. Haden
- Dasha (Lady Haden)
- Whistler's House, Old Chelsea
- Hands Etching
- Kensington Gardens
- Shere Mill Pond
- The Towing Path
- Sunset in Ireland
- Harlech
- Egham Lock
- Breaking up of the Agamemnon
- Kidwelly Town
Bibliography
Blaker, Michael. "Sir Francis Seymour Haden, PRE: Some Glimpses of Our Past President." The Journal of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers. 7 (1985).
Drake, Sir William Richard. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Francis Seymour Haden. London: Macmillan, 1880. Internet Archive. Contributed by Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Web. 1 April 2015.
Haden, Sir Francis Seymour. About Etching, Part I. Notes by Mr. Seymour Haden on a Collection of Etchings by the Great Masters. London: Fine Arts Society, 1879. Internet Archive. Contributed by Oxford University. Web. 1 April 2015.
_____. The Relative Claims of Etching and Engraving to Rank as Fine Arts, and to be Represented as such in the Royal Academy of Arts. London: Metchim and Son, 1883. Internet Archive. Contributed by Harvard University. Web. 1 April 2015.
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert. Etchings & Etchers. Boston: Little, Brown, 1908. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Cornell University Library. Web. 1 April 2015.
Hind, A. M. A Short History of Engraving and Etching. London: Constable, 1908.
Hind, A. M., rev. E. Chambers. "Haden, Sir Francis Seymour [pseud. H. Dean] (1818–1910), etcher and surgeon." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. 1 April 2015.
Keppel, Frederick P. Sir Seymour Haden: Painter-Etcher. New York: Keppel, 190[?]. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of California Libraries. Web. 1 April 2015.
"Obituary: Sir Francis Seymour Haden, FRCS." The Lancet. 11 June 1910 (pp. 1653-54). Internet Archive. Web. 1 April 2015.
Salaman, Malcolm C. The Etchings of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, PRE. London: Halton and Truscott Smith, 1923. Internet Archive. Contributed by Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 1 April 2015.
Wedmore, Sir Frederick. Etchings. London: Methuen, 1912. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of California Libraries. Web. 1 April 2015.
Last modified 3 October 2017