Our Camp at Mapledurham
- Catalogue number
-
SO 0006
- Artist
-
Edwin Edwards
- Printer
-
Elizabeth Ruth Escombe (Ruth Edwards)
- Date
-
1861
- Medium
-
Etching
- Dimensions [to plate mark]
-
220 x 100 mm
Subject
The foreground depicts a tree trunk and two tents pitched at the edge of the River Thames. A figure at the right tends to a pot on a stove or container and a punt can be partially seen under the river bank. Beyond the foreground plane the river recedes in perspective to a wooded horizon. A monogram composed of cursive ‘E’ and reversed ‘E’ (for Edwin Edwards) between two points has been placed at the centre of the gable of the central tent.
The image records the tented camp made by Edwards, Whistler and Ridley on their excursion to Mapledurham in June 1861. The figure at right seems unlike known contemporary images of Whistler and probably represents Matthew White Ridley.
Annotated in pencil on the reverse (unrecorded before framing)
Printing
Printed by Ruth Edwards, c.1889. It appears that Ruth Edwards undertook the printing of the majority of her partner's work both during his lifetime and subsequently. In the late 1880s she prepared an unknown number of posthumous portfolios of Edwin Edwards early work, using plates that mostly dated from the 1860s. These impressions were printed on fine Japanese paper, laid paper or Chine Collé, and mounted singly on sheets of heavy off-white card measuring 456 x 367 mm.
History
Purchased at auction in a folio of seventeen etchings by Edwards, at Roseberys, London 17th June 2016. Conserved by Raymond McChrystal in 2024.
References
Fitzwilliam Museum P.937-R
Cited in Lochnan 1984 [p.131] in the context of the etchings by Whistler associated with the same expedition including The Camp, The Storm, The Punt and Sketching Nos 1 and 2. Lochnan states that one of Edwards Mapledurham etchings is inscribed June 18, 1861 but no evidence of this seems visible on the impressions in this collection.
