Currently not on view

Lopping: February, from The Farmer's Year,

1933

Clare Leighton, 1898–1989; born London, UK; died Woodbury, CT; active Woodbury
x1942-155
A London-born engraver especially known for her illustrations of Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native (1929), Leighton was a devoted observer of the British pastoral. For that novel, she had traced the lives of Hardy’s characters onto the rolling hills of his native Dorset in southwest England. For The Farmer’s Year (1933), the first work that she both wrote and illustrated herself, she took Chilterns, an area northwest of London, as inspiration for twelve engravings of country life. With her characteristically adept use of darkness and light, she depicted local people at home, work, or play. Here, for February, she portrayed three men paring down tree branches, their bodies curving and twisting like the trees and hills in the foreground and background.

Information

Title
Lopping: February, from The Farmer's Year
Dates

1933

Maker

Clare Leighton

Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
block: 20.3 x 25.3 cm. (8 x 9 15/16 in.) sheet: 28.2 x 35.7 cm. (11 1/8 x 14 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.
Object Number
x1942-155
Signatures
Signed in graphite, lower right: Claire Leighton
Inscription
Numbered and titled in graphite, lower left: XL/XX Lopping
Culture
American
Type
wood engravings, prints
Subject
men, figures (representations), trimming (cutting), trees

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