Frank W. Benson: Divine Discontent

"Alert" by Frank W. Benson

"Frank W. Benson's grandchildren remember that he often put an etching through many trial proofs before he was satisfied with the end result. They recall his deep sighs of frustration and looks of disgust as he pulled off the second or third trial from a new plate and found it not to his liking. His notations, in pencil, on the early trials were instructions to himself on how to improve the next proof state. Comments about such things as adding clouds, increasing the number of birds, or darkening specific lines are written in the margins of his trial proofs. These penciled notes are an interesting window into the mind of the artist struggling to get the plate to a point he considered satisfactory.

Benson spoke often of the endless hours needed to master this skill and the opportunities for frustration inherent in a medium that demanded long periods of trial and error. Although a great number of his etchings so pleased him on the first pull that he required no further proofs, printing the entire edition from the first state, many others demanded multiple trial impressions. Others so clearly displeased him that after printing just a few trials, he abandoned the plate. 

A good example of this is Benson's 'Pintails Passing.' Although he had been etching for fully fifteen years when he created this drypoint in 1930, he required eight proofs before he was ready to publish. Working slowly on the design, Benson merely outlined the first few ducks in the first impression and then filled them in for the second. In the third trial he darkened two ducks and in the fourth completed the work on the upper four birds. He then added reflections and the horizon line for a fifth trials, and, not liking the reflection of the lowest bird, he reduced it by scraping. Of these trial proofs he printed only one or two impressions. Benson then lengthened the tail in the central bird, narrowed its body and introduced foreground rushes. In his final proof, he strengthened all the ducks, developed the landscape and horizon more fully and added clouds. Not quite satisfied, he removed the burr from the bodies of the upper birds before printing an edition of 150.

His good friend and fellow-etcher, Samuel Chamberlain, said that, even after more than twenty years of etching, 'Benson was a tireless experimentor, spurred on by a divine discontent with his work, and aspiring some day to do an etching that entirely pleased him. Once when asked if he had a favorite etching, Benson merely replied, 'I do each one as well as I can and let it go at that.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)