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ADOLESCENCE

© Richard Woodward

ADOLESCENCE 1932

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890 – 1978)

Details

Dimension
37 X 26.5 CM
Media
ETCHING
Accession number
P2406

Summary

This etching is considered Brockhurst’s print masterpiece and is probably his most celebrated work in the medium. Based on a charcoal drawing in the Wiggin Collection, Boston Public Library, Massachusetts, the sitter is Dorette Woodward. In 1929 Brockhurst met Kathleen Woodward when she was a 17 year old model at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Their relationship developed rapidly and Brockhurst rechristened her Dorette; the pair eloped to America amidst great scandal. For Brockhurst, Dorette embodied his vision of young womanhood. The work displays Brockhurst’s virtuosity in rendering a variety of surfaces, textures and tones. His depiction of a young girl contemplating her image in a mirror has both a sensual vulnerability and sexual yearning rare in Brockhurst’s work.

Glossary

  • Drawing

    The depiction of shapes and forms on a flat surface chiefly by means of lines although colour and shading may also be included. Materials most commonly used are pencil, ink, crayon, charcoal, chalk and pastel, although other materials, including paint, can be used in combination.

  • Etching

    An intaglio process whereby a metal plate (normally copper, zinc or steel) is covered with an acid-resistant layer of rosin mixed with wax. With a sharp point, the artist draws through this ground to reveal the plate beneath. The plate is then placed in an acid bath (a water and acid solution) and the acid bites into the metal plate where the drawn lines have exposed it. The waxy ground is cleaned off and the plate is covered in ink and then wiped clean, so that ink is retained only in the etched lines. The plate can then be printed through an etching press. The strength of the etched lines depends on the length of time the plate is left in the acid bath.

  • Medium

    Refers to either the material used to create a work of art, craft or design, i.e. oil, bronze, earthenware, silk; or the technique employed i.e. collage, etching, carving. In painting the medium refers to the binder for the pigment, e.g. oil, egg, acrylic dispersion. The plural form is media.