Author Description

Fine Prints of the Year, an Annual Review of Contemporary Etching and Engraving, was published yearly from 1923 to 1938. Each volume reproduced noteworthy prints produced through October of the year. Fine Prints of the Year presented a retrospective of the current state of the printmaker's art in many techniques -etchings, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts and others -by artists from continental Europe, Great Britain and the United States. Each volume featured a hundred or more reproductions selected from the year's prints, with expository essays. Most of the 562 artists represented in Fine Prints of the Year worked in a naturalistic style. Many of them, celebrated in their time, are now forgotten, their work eclipsed through the rise of Modernism. Fine Prints of the Year presents an unparalleled view of printmaking in the 1920s and 1930s, and is an essential resource to the collector and the art historian. This volume illustrates each of the 1697 prints reproduced in the sixteen volumes of Fine Prints. The illustrations are ordered alphabetically by the artist's name, and further by chronological order, allowing an easy view of the evolution of style and technique for many artists working during this period. The illustrations are followed by a chronological index to the volumes. Fine Prints of the Year was published in London by Halton and Truscott Smith (Halton and Co. since 1931). Beginning with its second volume it was simultaneously published in New York by Minton, Balch and Co. It was founded by Malcolm C. Salaman and edited by him through 1935, and by Campbell Dodgson thereafter. The American print section was separately edited by Helen Fagg (1928-1930), Susan A. Hutchinson (1931-1934), and Benjamin F. Morrow (1935).