Percussion Head

Art Historical Context

"Percussion Head" is a captivating soft-ground etching by Kennethilstrom, created sometime between 1876 and1900. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection—a renowned assemblage of prints and drawings gifted by collector Lessing J. Rosenwald—this work late 19th-century experimentation in printmaking. Kilstrom, an artist of that dynamic era, captures the intriguing subject of a "percussion head," likely evoking the taut skin of a drum or a mechanical percussion device, rendered with delicate precision. Soft-ground etching, the probable medium here, was a favored technique dur...