American Monotypes from the Baker/Pisano Collection | Page 28

William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916)
Head of an Arab, 1895–1900

Herkomergravure, 11 3/16 x 8 1/4 in.
Chazen Museum of Art, gift of D. Frederick Baker from the
Baker/Pisano Collection, 2014.6.3

In 1885, German-born, but England-based, Hubert Herkomer
visited the United States where he met William Merritt Chase.
By that year Herkomer was well established in the London art
world, and Chase had already begun his meteoric rise on the
New York art scene. Chase showed Herkomer the monotype
process. Herkomer, taken with the results of the process
developed a way of permanently fixing the spontaneous marks
of monotype on that plate and, probably on Chase’s next trip
to England in 1895, introduced Chase to his process, the
herkomergravure. The process involved smearing ink onto a
copper plate and creating the image with fingers and/or
brushes, as with the monotype process. Then the plate was
dusted with a combination of special powders, dried, and
electroplated. The resulting image was a quasi-monotype.
Although it is likely that Chase produced several Herkomergravures, Head of an Arab is his only known print using
the process.
NOTES:
Pisano, William Merritt Chase, 94, Pr. 8, illus.

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