Dock Scene, Massachusetts
date: label: date made
content: 1879
name: label: graphic artist
content: Gifford, Robert Swain
label: maker
content: Gifford, Robert Swain
notes: label: Description
content: Robert Swain Gifford’s etching <i>Coal Pockets at New Bedford</i> shows a grimy Massachusetts dock scene with a coal storage facility and a chimney belching smoke. Gifford pictured the southeastern Massachusetts coast, where he had lived as a boy, in many of his prints. As Sylvester R. Koehler noted in the <i>American Art Review</i>, which published the print in 1880, “The artist lifts the commonplace into the ideal, and teaches us to see beauty where our unguided eyes would have failed to discover it.” The print continued to be popular and was republished several times. In later impressions like this one, the date “-79’’ at bottom right has almost disappeared. Probably the publishers did not want the print to seem out of date.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Ferris Collection
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content: Communications
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.14871.02
label: catalog number
content: 14871.02
label: accession number
content: 94830
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
label: Other Terms
content: print; Intaglio; Etching
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 17.5 cm x 12.5 cm; 6 7/8 in x 4 15/16 in
label: Measurements
content: plate: 19 cm x 13.5 cm; 7 1/2 in x 5 5/16 in
label: Measurements
content: sheet: 30.5 cm x 23.5 cm; 12 in x 9 1/4 in