The Sniper, No.2
1920
Medium
drypoint
Dimensions
sheet: 23.5 × 34 cm (9 1/4 × 13 3/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6013
Art Historical Context
**The Sniper, No. 2** is a striking drypoint print by Scottish artist James McBey, in 1920 and now housed in the National Gallery of's Rosenwald Collection. just 23.5 × 34 cm, this intimate work captures the tension of wartime vigilance through McBey's masterful line work. As an Official War Artist during World War, McBey documented the realities of the Western Front and this piece—part of a series—likely evokes the peril of snipers in the trenches, even if etched postwar. Drypoint, McBey's favored medium here, involves scratching directly into a copper plate, raising a soft burr that yields ...
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 ...