The Lady and the Rooks
n.d.
Medium
Woodcut on paper
Dimensions
Image: 4.2 × 7.6 cm (1 11/16 × 3 in.); Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 6.8 × 11.3 cm (2 11/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
Classification
wood engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4700
Art Historical Context
Edward Calvert’s “The Lady and the Rooks” is a small yet captivating woodcut that invites close inspection. Measuring just over four centimeters in height, the print demonstrates the remarkable precision possible in this medium. Wood engraving allows the artist to cut fine lines into the end grain of hardwood, producing crisp contrasts between light and shadow that bring the central figure and surrounding birds to life. As a work on paper in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the piece reflects the 19th-century revival of wood engraving as an independent art form r...