STEEL ENGRAVING – “RETURNING HOME” from the painting by T. Gerard, engraved by G.C. Finden, printed in 1885.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 6 ½” x 10 1/8”, and is matted to 12” x 16” for easy framing.

            A party of Belgian peasants are returning home from a day’s labor in the fields.  The mother carries a hoe and fork.  One of the children, seated in a dog-cart on some dry straw, holds a wreath of wild flowers up to the admiration of her baby sister in her lap.  Her older brother is blowing a horn, and the dog trudges along faithfully with the burden, whose weight is increased by the basket of emptied plates and emptied wine jug.  The landscape reaches far away in glad sunshine to the foot of a range of mountains, and the harvest which will be gathered by and by promises a rich reward.  Theodore Gerard received a medal at the Philadelphia centennial Exhibition for two of his pictures, entitled “The Birthday” and “An Unwelcome Guest,” and is known also by a companion picture to “Returning Home,” called “A Triumphal Procession,” although in the latter work the country is barren and hilly.  But the same figures appear in each picture.  The difference between the Belgian School is well defined in the artist’s conception of the “Returning Home.”  All German painters have a national ideal of beauty in peasant women and children, and this ideal varies much from the prettiness and smartness found in that of their Gallic or Belgian brothers.  Let any spectator ask himself, for instance, what expression a painter like Knaus would have given to the face of the peasant mother, and his answer will have partly stated this diference.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, etchings, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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