Kerr Eby
Canadian, born Japan, 1890 - 1946August Morning, 1932
Not on view
Etching and dry-point on paper
Dimensions14 15/16 × 10 9/16 in. (37.9 × 26.8 cm)
Image: 10 1/4 × 7 5/8 in. (26 × 19.4 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson in memory of Mr. Robert Martin Purcell, 1981.105.1
This work marks a departure from Eby’s typically agitated compositions. Standing meditatively at the edge of a narrow dock, a lone male figure is framed by the gently weeping form of a bankside tree. The soft, flittering linework captures the reflective qualities of sunlit water, and the naturally humid environment of south Asia. The resulting ethereal effect is heightened by the imperceptible identity of the figure, and by empty canoes tethered to a docking post nearby. Like a tranquil recollection, this work suggests a private, fleeting moment, and the innocent appreciation of male beauty. In the last edition of this print, the figure was removed for reasons unknown, leaving only the landscape and a haunting void.
Born in Tokyo to Canadian missionary parents, Eby arrived in New York City in 1907. He studied at the Art Students League and the Pratt Institute, entering the professional art world as an illustrator. He later took up etching and enlisted in the Army in 1917. His involvement in and acute reaction to the horrors of World War I proved significantly influential to his work, which for much of his career expressed vehement opposition to such brutality through apoplectic visuals.
