Rough Going
1919
Medium
drypoint
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.3715
Art Historical Context
Kerr Eby’s 1919 drypoint “Rough Going” captures a moment of struggle with quiet intensity. Created in the immediate aftermath of World War I, the print’s title and date suggest a scene shaped by the hardships of wartime experience. Eby, an American printmaker who served during the conflict, often turned to the medium to record the physical and emotional toll of those years. Drypoint was especially suited to such subjects. The technique, in which the artist scratches directly into a metal plate, raises a burr that holds ink and produces soft, velvety lines. This gives the image a tactile richn...
About the Artist
Kerr Eby
Kerr Eby (1889–1946) was a Canadian-born American printmaker and painter who became one of the most accomplished etchers of his generation and a powerful chronicler of the experience of war. Born in Tokyo to Canadian parents, he grew up in New York and studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League under George Bridgman. Eby volunteered for service in World War I and saw action in Fra...