Goin to Town
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
etching in black
Dimensions
plate: 25.1 × 32.6 cm (9 7/8 × 12 13/16 in.) sheet: 37.1 × 46.6 cm (14 5/8 × 18 3/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams
Accession Number
2008.115.3708
Art Historical Context
**Goin to Town** is a striking 1941 etching by American printmaker Jackson Lee Nesbitt, captured on a plate measuring 25.1 × 32.6 cm (9 7/8 × 12 13/16 in.). Created as World War II loomed on the horizon—just months before the U.S. entered the conflict—this black-ink print reflects the era's tension between everyday American life and impending global change. Now housed in the National Gallery of Art's Reba and Dave Williams Collection, it exemplifies mid-20th-century printmaking's role in documenting social realities. Etching, Nesbitt's chosen medium, involves incising lines into a metal plate...