The Ancestor
1876 to 1900
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
drypoint
Dimensions
sheet: 23.8 × 23.7 cm (9 3/8 × 9 5/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.8125
Art Historical Context
**The Ancestor** is a captivating drypoint print by British artist Arthur Ralph Middleton Todd created sometime between 1876 and1900. Measuring a intimate 23.8 × 23.7 cm, this work belongs to the National Gallery of's Rosenwald Collection, its place among esteemed 19th-century prints. Todd, active during the late Victorian era, contributed to the etching revival—a movement that celebrated the expressive potential of printmaking as an accessible yet sophisticated art form. Drypoint, the medium here, involves scratching directly into a metal plate with a sharp tool, raising a soft "burr" that p...