"Hay Wagon in a Barn" by Ralph Ludwig Boyer, Amer., (1879-1852)

Drypoint, Ed. possibly 60, 6-7/8 x 7-13/16, initialed & signed in pencil, dedicated in pencil by the artist's widow to the Westport Women's Club, on thin cream wove paper, tape stain verso top edge and recto top right corner, small loss to top left corner, repaired worm hole top right margin, pale mat line from previous mount. A beautiful impression, with particularly effective use of the rich drypoint burr. A student of W. Merritt Chase, Thomas Anschutz and Cecilia Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy, Boyer enjoyed a long career as a painter, illustrator, muraslist and printmaker, and was an important member of the storied community of artists living in Westport, Connecticut from the 1920's on. Kerr Eby was his next door neighbor. Though I've not seen many prints by Boyer in  32 years of active dealing, I've been impressed by his excellent draftsmanship and mastery of drypoint. His prints include sporting, religious historical and rural landscape subjects of great poetic beauty. Boyer, like many great and neglected artists I have encountered, deserves  a complete catalogue of his prints so that his considerable accomplishments may be better known and enjoyed by the public.