Sunset at Cattawade
1922/1923
Medium
etching
Dimensions
sheet: 21.8 × 34 cm (8 9/16 × 13 3/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6021
Art Historical Context
**Sunset at Cattawade** is a captivating etching by Scottish artist James McBey, around 1922–1923. McBey, a master printmaker celebrated for his luminous landscapes and atmospheric scenes, captured the serene beauty of Catwade, a picturesque in Suffolk, England, the River Stour. post-World War I work reflects a return to pastoral tranquility, with the fading sun casting a golden glow over marshes and waterways, evoking a sense quiet reflection amid the era's recovery. Etching, McBey's preferred medium, allowed him to achieve exquisite detail and tonal subtlety through acid-etched lines on a m...
About the Artist
James McBey
James McBey (1883–1959) was a Scottish artist renowned for his etchings and paintings, emerging from humble beginnings in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, as the illegitimate son of a blacksmith's daughter. Largely self-taught, he left school at fifteen to work as a bank clerk in Aberdeen, where he devoured art books from the public library and attended evening classes at Gray's School of Art to hone his ...