Castle Street Dog
1952
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
wood engraving in black on wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 2.54 × 5.4 cm (1 × 2 1/8 in.) sheet: 12.54 × 6.99 cm (4 15/16 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jay Finkel
Accession Number
2013.121.9
Art Historical Context
**Castle Street Dog** (1952) is a striking wood engraving by Leonard Bask, a pivotal 20th-century American print, sculptor, and illustrator renowned for reviving the ancient technique of wood engraving. Created on fine wove paper, this image—measuring just 2. × 5.4 cm—captures a stray dog on what may evoke a gritty urban street scene, rendered with Baskin's signature bold contrasts and humanistic empathy. At the National Gallery of Art, thanks to the gift of Jay Finkel, it exemplifies post-World War II American printmaking's focus on everyday subjects infused with emotional depth. Wood engrav...
About the Artist
Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) was a towering figure in American art, renowned for his monumental sculptures, powerful woodcuts, and intricate book illustrations that grappled with the human condition's darker facets. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to a family of rabbis, he moved to Brooklyn's Jewish Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood at age seven. Vowing to become a sculptor at 15, Baskin apprent...