Aguirre House (Santa Barbara)
c. 1880
Medium
etching in black on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 10 × 20.16 cm (3 15/16 × 7 15/16 in.) plate: 14.29 × 24.29 cm (5 5/8 × 9 9/16 in.) sheet: 27.78 × 39.69 cm (10 15/16 × 15 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Alice F. Williams)
Accession Number
2015.19.929
Art Historical Context
Henry Chapman Ford's *Aguirre House ( Barbara)*, created around 1880, captures the of California's Spanish colonial architecture through the delicate medium of etching. Ford, a prominent American artist and member of the late-19th-century etching revival, traveled extensively in the American West, documenting historic adobes and missions with meticulous line work. This print depicts the Aguirre House, a storied Santa Barbara residence emblematic of the region's Mexican-era heritage, blending rustic adobe walls with ornate details that evoke California's fading frontier past. Etching on laid p...