Helen Hyde: The Uncatalogued or Unillustrated Prints

Tim Mason's and Lynn Mason's catalog, "Helen Hyde," Smithsonian Institution Press (1991), was published twenty-five years ago as part of the Smithsonian's American Printmakers series.  At the time, it was a seminal catalog, illustrating 127 of Hyde's woodblock prints, etchings, and lithographs, and nothing has been published in the interim to supplant its status as the single most useful reference on Helen Hyde (1868-1919) and her work.

The Masons' catalog, however, is not without its limitations.  For example, nearly two-thirds of the print images in the catalog are shown only in black and white, and 24 of the catalogued prints are not illustrated at all.  In addition, there are a few prints that were omitted from the catalog altogether. 

The Red Curtain (c. 1907) by Helen Hyde

Personal Collection

(preparatory drawing with watercolor for the woodblock print)

The Hired Baby (1909) by Helen Hyde

Personal Collection

(woodblock print with two hand-colored artist proofs)

Given that many of the missing prints are rare designs printed in small quantities and that fact that the catalog was prepared when the World Wide Web was in its infancy and before museums and art dealers started to make digital images of Hyde's prints readily available, such omissions are certainly understandable.  Indeed, six of the missing prints continue to remain frustratingly elusive.

“From My Bedroom Window, Jan. 19, 1913” by Helen Hyde
Personal Collection

(graphite and colored pencil study for the woodblock print "My Neighbors")

 

“Snow On Edge Of Roof Over Tiles”; “Snow On Drawing Tree Pots, 

Feb. 26, 1913”; and “Bamboo Under Snow, Feb. 26, 1913” by Helen Hyde
Personal Collection

(graphite and colored pencil studies for the woodblock print "My Neighbors")

While I have not attempted to upload color images for the prints that the Masons' catalog only showed in black and white (or images of color variants that may exist), I thought it  nonetheless would be useful for collectors and researchers if I assembled in one place images of all of the prints (catalogued or not) that cannot be found in that catalog.  The Masons organized their catalog by date, so I have follow the same convention and adopted their numbering system.  Prints 59A, 113A, and 152-156 are new additions to the catalog.

1. Ah Tim aka "Standing Boy in Purple" (1896) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University

(color etching)

4. Sausalito (1896) by Helen Hyde
5" x 7" (12.2 cm x 17.8 cm)

 Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(black-and-white etching)

6. Cat and the Cherub (1897) by Helen Hyde

Personal Collection

(color etching)

15. Fort Point (1898) by Helen Hyde

 Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color etching)

18. A Native Daughter (1898) aka "Girl in Yellow Tunic" by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color etching)

19. Spring Blossoms (1898) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

(color etching)

Note: Also known as "Little Miss Cherry Blossom" or "Cherry Blossom."

22. The Yellow Boy aka "Chinese Girl" (1898) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

(color etching)

24. A Gentleman of France (1899) by Helen Hyde
7" x 5" (17.8 cm x 12.7 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(black-and-white etching)

26. Victuals and Drink (1899) by Helen Hyde

(color etching)

28. In The Snow at Tokyo (1900) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

(color etching)

39. Little Miss Cherry Blossom aka "Cherry Blossom" (1901 or earlier) by Helen Hyde

(color etching)

Note:  Shiloh McMurtrey in her December 2016 Arizona State University dissertation "Helen Hyde and her 'Children': Influences, Techniques and Business Savvy of an American Japoniste Printmaker" notes that this print does not exist and that it is a little known alternative title to "Spring Blossom" (Mason #19)

53. In Kite Time aka Kite Time (1903) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of www.hanga.com

(color etching)

58. The Puppy-cat and the Baby (1904) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color woodblock print)

 

59A. The Bath (1905) by Helen Hyde

Personal Collection

(color woodblock print)

Note: This is a proof variant of the canonical print design that employs a different pattern on the woman's kimono.

67. Goblin Lanterns (1906) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(etching with aquatint)

72. The Good-Luck Branch (1907) by Helen Hyde

 Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color woodblock print)

109. A Javanese "Small Person" (1913) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color soft-ground etching)

113A. At the Ferry (1913) by Helen Hyde
 10-13/16" x 8-3/16"

Courtesy of Conrad R. Graeber Fine Art

(color aquatint)

Note: This copy bears an inscription by Hyde's sister "At the Ferry - 1913 - The only copy - not listed.”  Two black-and-white trial proofs are also known to exist.   All three copies now reside at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon.

126. The Lucky Branch (1915) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color etching)

 

127. Marietta (1915) by Helen Hyde

(black-and-white soft-ground etching)

128. Little Dancer of the "No." (1916) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color soft-ground etching)

 

131. Cypress Trees (1917) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(aquatint)

138. Friday's Child (1918) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(soft ground etching)

145. Johanna (1918) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

(color soft-ground etching)

148. My Friend Gabriel aka "Gabriel, My Friend" (1918) by Helen Hyde

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(color soft-ground etching)

Note: Both the Masons' catalog and the Smithsonian catalog list this as a color soft-ground etching, although it looks like it was printed only in brown ink.

  

149. Perturbed (1918) by Helen Hyde

(soft ground etching?)

152. Save The Babies, The Wealth of the Nation (1918) by Helen Hyde

24-1/2" x 17-3/4" (62.25 x 45 cm)

 Personal Collection

(lithographic poster)

 

153.  Love in War (1918)

5" x 3 7/8''

Personal Collection

(etching)

154. By the Light of the Moon (1898)

(etching)

Note: #17 in Shiloh McMurtrey in her December 2016 Arizona State University dissertation "Helen Hyde and her 'Children': Influences, Techniques and Business Savvy of an American Japoniste Printmaker."  It was exhibited at the Sketch Club 12th Semi-Annual Exhibition in Oakland, California in December 1898.

155. The Golden-Gate (1898)

(etching)

Note: #19 in Shiloh McMurtrey in her December 2016 Arizona State University dissertation "Helen Hyde and her 'Children': Influences, Techniques and Business Savvy of an American Japoniste Printmaker." This print is described in the San Francisco Chronical (Feb. 12, 1899) as the "View of the Golden Gate [Bridge] as it appears from [Hyde's] studio window."

156. Cherry Blossoms Overhead (unknown date)
5" x 4"

Courtesy of Eldred's

(etching)

Note: I have included this last etching in an abundance of caution, but I believe that the auction house's attribution to Hyde is incorrect.  The signature is unreadable and the print employs a single "H" monogram, rather than Hyde's customary double "H" monogram.   Moreover, to this eye, the children are stylistically unlike those found in Hyde's other prints.

 *   *    *

 Miniature Portrait of Helen Hyde (1911) by Carolyn D. Tyler

Personal Collection

(paint on ceramic)

 His First Joss Stick (1899) by Helen Hyde
(watercolor on board)
Personal Collection
 

 His First Temple Offering (The Joss Stick) 
Antikamnia Calendar (1903) by Helen Hyde
(photolithograph on board)
Personal Collection

Back of calendar

Personal Collection

If you are aware of additional Hyde prints not found in the Masons'  catalog, or have images of "By the Light of the Moon," "The Golden-Gate," "Victuals and Drink,"  "Marietta," "Cypress Trees," or "Perturbed," please let me know so I can revise and update this post accordingly.

Ex libris (1919) in Memory of Helen Hyde,

based on her print The Good-Luck Branch (1907),

pencil signed by Park? Phipps

Personal Collection

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Light and Line: E. S. Lumsden’s Visions of India

Thanks to a heads-up from Waynor Rogers at Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Art & Antiques, I recently learned about a new exhibition that will be of interest to some of my readership.   The show, Light and Line: E.S. Lumsden's Visions of India, recently opened at the South Asian Gallery at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, for an indefinite run.  It features 19 prints, recent gifts to the museum from the Frank Raysor Collection.

Self-Portrait, No. 1 (1905) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Burnaby Art Gallery

(drypoint)

The English-born artist Ernest Stephen Lumsden (1883-1948) began his art studies at age 15 at Reading School of Art under Frank Morley Fletcher in 1899 and later briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1903.  In 1908, he accepted an appointment at the Edinburgh College of Art.   According to the VMFA's press release, while visiting Rangoon in 1912, Lumsden "chanced upon a tourist guide containing a small photograph of the Ganges River at Benares.  Inspired, the master etcher rushed to the holy city, commencing a decades-long fascination with India."  Lumsden would ultimately make approximately 125 etchings featuring Indian imagery—more than a third of his  lifetime output—as a result of four trips he made to the former British colony between 1912 and 1927. 

 

 Benares No. 2 (1912) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

The Pagoda Platform (1912) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Lumsden married woodblock print artist Mabel Royds in 1913, and the pair visited India between December 1913 and the Spring of 1914 as the tail end of a long honeymoon trip.  The pair returned in 1915 for an extended stay.  Lumsden's heart condition made active war service in Europe impossible, but he had heard that the Indian Army was less particular, although it ultimately rejected him as well.  A pregnant Mabel Royds returned to the U.K. in 1917, but Lumsden was able to get a military job as a Second Lieutenant (Infantry Branch)  of the India Army Reserve Officers censoring telegrams in Calcutta and remained there until discharged in 1919.  His fourth and final trip to India took place in 1927.

Worshippers (1919) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

 

Shiva's Bull (1919) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Lumsden was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1909 and was raised to  full membership in 1915.  He was elected  an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1923 and made a full member in 1933.  From 1929 to 1947, he was President of the Society of Artist Printers.  In 1925, Lumsden authored The Art of Etching, a seminal treatise on the subject of etching.

Ragged Sails (1925) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

The Upper Reach (1928) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Most, perhaps all, of Lumsden's Indian and Tibetan prints were based on paintings he appeared to have composed on site.  On the two examples I have shown below, the etchings are the mirror images of the designs depicted in his watercolors.

Triksé on the Tibetan Border 1916 (August 23, 1916) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(pencil and watercolor heightened with white)

Triksé Monastery (1920) (first state #1/1) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Barnaby Art Gallery

(etching)

 

The Pipal Tree (March 21, 1927) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(watercolor)

   

The Sacred Tree (1929) (fourth state #18/52) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(etching)

 
The VMFA's press release notes that, unlike many of his predecessors, Lumsden seemed to resist the impulse to romanticize and exoticize: "While undeniably enchanted by the country, he nonetheless offers a relatively sober vision of India, one that suggests an easy, contented interaction with its places and peoples.  Praised by his contemporaries, Lumsden’s technical virtuosity includes an economy of line, carefully built compositions, and, above all, a command over depicting India’s intense light."

Self-Portrait (1923) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Burnaby Art Gallery

(drawing)

 
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