Mid Century American reproduction print “Central Park” by Harry Wickey

This is a mid century American reproduction print titled “Central Park” by Harry Wickey who
at the age of twenty-two, arrived in New York in 1914. His life had been as full of incident as Sinbad the Sailor's. He came from a family of pioneers who believed that labor is a salutary thing, and young Harry was allowed to work the theory to death. Fortunately, all this agreed with him, and his desire to be an artist was not to be smothered. He tried art schools in Detroit and Chicago, but they did not like him-and he did not like them. In New York, he got his first real break from Robert Henri, who said of some of his drawings, "I would be very proud if I were the author of this work." Finally he met Harvey Dunn, who encouraged him to become an illustrator.
But the editors did not like his illustrations—he confesses that Dunn occasionally touched up one of his drawings to make it salable.
The World War intervened. Harry Wickey went overseas, put in a lot of time thinking, and came back determined not to kowtow to the editors. The result was that his own standards forced him out of the illustrating field. He began to teach, and was so successful that it was the main source of his livelihood from 1919 to 1933. In 1920 he began to get interested in etching—a medium he reluctantly abandoned in 1935, when his eyes began to go back on him. His latest passion was sculpture.
Central Park is one of several etchings Wickey has devoted to that subject. No special locality is intended, though the artist confesses that he had the lagoon near Fifty-ninth Street in mind. The incidents and forms are freely selected from that vicinity-their truth is obvious to anyone who knows the microcosm that is Central Park. The etching was made in 1931, at a time when the artist had matured his ideas about presenting the sculptural aspect of his material.

Size: 12”W x 9”H

Condition: Vintage / Antique / Print in excellent condition with yellowing around the edges

Country of Origin: USA