Subject
A single willow tree, with a lock or weir seen beyond the tree. Two figures are seen in silhouette in the shade of the willow; one fishes in the river beyond the tree while the other lies reading.
Inscription in the plate at bottom left:
"That tallest willow in whose shade…..
…..thou, rapt in some great poet's lay
I, bending o'er my angle, dilerrlly
in
Edwards 64"
The striking, emblematic image of English male leisure. Similar scenes of river fishing and contemplative ease feature in the etchings of Alphonse Legros (SO 0031, SO 0082) and are a recurrent theme in the work of Francis Seymour Haden. The formalised treatment of the foliage of the willow evokes both ornamental Rococo printmaking and the contemporary pattern designs of William Morris circle, such as Morris & Co. Fruits (1865) or Willow (1874)
Annotated in pencil on the reverse: Willow, 1864, Edwin Edwards
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.
