Original Dry-point Etching: "The Street Sellers" [Inscribed to Lady Emilia Dilke]
- SIGNED
- Signed, Dated 1900
Signed, Dated 1900. Original dry-point ecthing on laid paper; sheet size 13-1/4" x 14", printed area 10-3/4" x 11-3/4". Signed in plate, lower left; additionally dated, inscribed and signed in pencil, lower right: "To Lady Dilke from Wm Strang / 24 May 1900." Captioned "First State" in author's hand, lower left; titled at bottom margin of sheet. Image area slightly age-darkened; a few shallow chips and tears into margins (well away from image); Very Good or better. Edition size not noted.
Strang (1857-1921) worked in many mediums and genres, but was known for his documentary studies of the poor and working-class inhabitants of Great Britain. This sympathetic portrait of six street-hawkers on an urban street-corner could have been made in pretty much any British city of the period. Strang has inscribed the work to Lady [Emilia] Dilke, a prominent scholar, suffragist, and trades unionist. She was also a close friend of novelist Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot), who reputedly drew inspiration from Lady Dilke's first marriage in her portrayal of the marriage of Edward Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch. The edition for this etching must have been quite small, as we can trace no record at auction aside from this example, purchased from a London auction house in 2019.
Strang (1857-1921) worked in many mediums and genres, but was known for his documentary studies of the poor and working-class inhabitants of Great Britain. This sympathetic portrait of six street-hawkers on an urban street-corner could have been made in pretty much any British city of the period. Strang has inscribed the work to Lady [Emilia] Dilke, a prominent scholar, suffragist, and trades unionist. She was also a close friend of novelist Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot), who reputedly drew inspiration from Lady Dilke's first marriage in her portrayal of the marriage of Edward Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch. The edition for this etching must have been quite small, as we can trace no record at auction aside from this example, purchased from a London auction house in 2019.